Claire Foy leads a tender, quietly intense drama about grief and the strange discipline of learning to live with it. If you like films where nature is more than just background, this one lands softly and stays with you.
Film details
- Title: H is for Hawk
- Premiere date: 19 March 2026
- Director: Philippa Lowthorpe
- Runtime: 115 min
- Theatres and URLs: Cinerama • LantarenVenster
- Language & subtitles: English spoken, Dutch subtitled
- Age rating: 9+
- Notable visual / thematic hooks: falconry, grief and family, British landscapes, human-animal bond, memoir adaptation, quiet emotional realism
What’s the vibe?
This is a thoughtful, wind-swept drama about mourning, memory, and trying to regain control through something wild. It is sad, grounded, and often beautiful, with the hawk becoming less a gimmick and more a way into Helen’s inner world.
Trailer
Check out the trailer below.
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Why you might like it
- Eyes: misty landscapes, soft natural light, and a tactile sense of weather and wilderness.
- Heart: Claire Foy’s performance gives the film its emotional pull, especially in the quieter moments of loss and reconnection.
- Mind: it explores how grief can isolate people, and how rituals, even unusual ones, can become a bridge back to the world.
Critical reception
Critics have responded well. Rotten Tomatoes lists a strong critical score and highlights Claire Foy’s psychologically raw lead performance, praising the film’s bruising honesty and evocative imagery.
The film has also picked up awards attention. It won a Golden Eye prize for Claire Foy at Zurich, received a British Independent Film Award nomination for cinematography, and earned a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding British Film.
Scene to watch for
Watch for the early training sequences with the hawk. They are not played as cosy healing moments, but as difficult, disciplined encounters where grief and control keep colliding.
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Recommended pairing
Go with something warm and simple before the screening, then take a quiet walk afterwards if the weather behaves. This feels like the kind of film that pairs better with reflection than chatter.
Need-to-knows
The film is based on Helen Macdonald’s bestselling memoir, which gives it an intimate, personal core even when it opens out into bigger themes about family and nature.
