H Is for Hawk is a 2025 biographical drama film adapted from the award-winning 2014 book of the same name, the memoir of British naturalist Helen Macdonald. Based on a true story, the plot centers on Helen, a 37-year-old woman who spirals downward after the sudden death of her father and makes the unusual decision to tame a goshawk and integrate it into her daily life. While H Is for Hawk has a calm and restrained narrative, it often feels somewhat forced and confusing, as we are left unsure how to feel about the protagonist we have been following.
H Is for Hawk begins on an ordinary day in 2007, when Helen Macdonald spends the entire morning birdwatching, specifically observing two goshawks, through the telescope her father gave her. Later, Helen calls her father, Alisdair, and tells him about her adventures, which pleases him, as he loves to experience and hear about any interaction with nature.
Director: Philippa Lowthorpe
Writers: Emma Donoghue, Philippa Lowthorpe, Helen MacDonald
Stars: Claire Foy, Brendan Gleeson, Denise Gough
Helen and her mother are already a little worried because Alisdair continues to work every day despite being past retirement age, but the man, a photojournalist by profession, refuses to give up. That day, he travels to London in search of a story, as usual, but tragedy strikes when he apparently suffers a stroke en route and is found in critical condition on the road. Despite being rushed to the hospital, Alisdair cannot be saved, and his family is immediately informed.
When Helen receives the call from her mother, her whole world collapses, as she cannot bear the pain of losing her one true friend so unexpectedly. But staying true to her feelings has been her father's mantra in life; she doesn't express any of this grief, but rather represses it completely, to the point that she even goes out to dinner with her best friend, Christina, right after receiving the devastating news. Unfortunately, she grew accustomed to suppressing her true feelings, refusing to break down in front of her family, and her only mourning was shedding a few tears for her father in private. Helen completed the necessary arrangements with her mother and brother, and Alisdair finally found peace. However, the unresolved trauma lingered, eventually leading Helen to embrace a new interest and passion: owning and training a goshawk.
In her youth, Helen had some experience with falconry and remains close friends with Stuart, a man who actively practices falconry out of passion and possibly also professionally. Helen befriended Stuart through Alisdair, and their bond remained strong. Therefore, two months after her father's passing, while Helen was still desperately searching for a distraction, she told Stuart about her plan to buy a goshawk and train it. In the following weeks, Helen's life changed dramatically, as she forgot everything else and focused entirely on training the goshawk. She stops leaving the house completely and avoids all social events to care for the goshawk.
Christina continues trying to help her friend, as she realizes Helen is spiraling downward. It's because of Christina's presence that the distracted goshawk finally starts eating, but Helen, in turn, also wants to get rid of her. The protagonist stops teaching at her university, keeps her students waiting, and almost forgets the assignments she has due in a few weeks. Her situation is such that her mother and brother are extremely worried about her well-being, as Helen has stopped caring about her basic hygiene, and her apartment quickly begins to smell of raw meat. She takes her bird everywhere, so naturally, she is avoided and excluded from university parties and gatherings. Oddly, Helen understands that those around her are uncomfortable with her new interest, or hobby, as most call it, but she doesn't bother to do anything about it.
To begin with, Helen is extremely distraught after the death of her father, whom she loved deeply and on whom she was heavily emotionally dependent. However, she doesn't process her feelings, suppressing them and seeking distraction. Therefore, the goshawk becomes almost an object that distracts her from her grief, which in turn plunges her even deeper into depression. There's also a reason behind her obsession with the bird, which she names Mabel, as she apparently finds similarities between herself and the creature. Although Helen is a soft-spoken woman who doesn't seem to express herself, there's a ferocity within her that immediately connects her to the bird. That's why she chooses Mabel, even though the paperwork was done for a different goshawk, simply because she's impressed and captivated by the goshawk's fierceness and wild nature.
A fundamental characteristic of goshawks is their solitary nature, which also aligns with Helen's desire to be completely alone in the world. This is something that subtly exists within her even before her father's death, and it could indicate that she was already depressed before the tragic event. This might also be the reason why Helen doesn't have a partner and doesn't even bother to date or make new friends after bringing the bird into her life. She's content with the presence of Christina, her best friend, but they don't seem very close either. The desire to isolate herself from the world, focus on her studies, and forge a life where she is completely independent, both physically and emotionally, makes her feel even more drawn to Mabel.
But at the same time, Helen also possesses a great deal of affection, like any other human being, and she wants someone to give it to her. Unfortunately, she ends up trying to give all the affection in the world to Mabel, who is incapable of understanding such emotions. Perhaps this even reflects a fear within Helen, one that could stem from past failed romances, as she now chooses to love a creature completely incapable of understanding such feelings and, therefore, unable to abandon her. What begins as a twisted way of coping with the grief of losing her father quickly becomes a deeply personal mission for Helen.
During her training with Mabel, Helen also seems to find a deeper connection between the practice and her own life, as she identifies with several aspects of falconry. Falconry as a practice can be considered rather thankless, as nothing is gained from it. Training other animals, such as dogs and horses, obviously benefits any human, at least emotionally, as these creatures understand and reciprocate feelings. However, goshawks are not so intelligent and are simply ferocious birds of prey that feed solely on hunting. Therefore, technically, there is no reason to train these birds beyond the sheer joy and passion one can feel for falconry. Similarly, Helen is an academic who is slowly realizing how thankless and uninteresting her profession is. It's almost the same as with falconry, since people choose academia solely out of immense passion, without anything substantial to gain from it. The fact that falconry involves creating a bond with a creature that doesn't understand emotions and is only motivated by the food the falconer holds in their hand is also similar to Helen's life, where her friends or romantic interests don't truly care about her, but rather about what she offers them.
Although Helen had taken on the responsibility of writing the eulogy for her father's memorial service, she had neglected it, like everything else in her life. At one point, it seems that Helen will succumb even further to her difficulties and forget about the eulogy, or even the memorial service itself, altogether. But it's also evident throughout the film that the one constant, the fundamental pillar in Helen's life, had been her beloved father, and it could be said that, ultimately, it is Alisdair who, once again, helps his daughter break free from the routine. Helen not only attends the service but also reads the eulogy she wrote for him. Interestingly, and thankfully, this is the first public event we see her attend without her pet bird.
In the eulogy, Helen speaks of a revelation she had about her father, which also marks a turning point in her life. From her interactions with her father throughout their life together, Helen had been under the impression that Alisdair was adept at detaching himself from everything and viewing life and affairs from an objective perspective. After all, Alisdair literally saw things through a filtered lens, having been a photographer his entire life. He even told his daughter how looking at the world through his camera's viewfinder had always given him a special strength and courage. His inexperience with the more serious matters of human life had led Helen to feel that her father actually preached detachment, something she had tried to instill in her own life.
Looking through her father's photographs and the memories she had with him, Helen finally realizes that he never advocated detachment, but rather always wanted to teach the lesson of engaging with and feeling at one with life, family, and nature. That's why Alisdair had always ensured his children, and especially his daughter, shared a special connection with nature, teaching her not only to observe it from a distance, but also to be a part of it in a healthy and enriching way. The large number of people who come to the memorial to pay tribute to Alisdair truly moves Helen.
Just after delivering the eulogy at the memorial service, Helen is seen standing among the crowd gathered in the hall, but unlike before, she doesn't feel awkward or out of place. This is because she finally understands the connection that binds everyone around her through their love and admiration for her father, and she also genuinely feels how humans can share affection and support, unintentionally and unconsciously. The experience begins to heal her troubled mind, and Helen gradually begins to recognize that she had been going down the wrong path. She starts seeing a therapist and admits how she had become engrossed in cultivating an affectionate bond with a bird of an unloving species, one that could never have reciprocated her kindness.
Helen is diagnosed with clinical depression and shares the news with her family, trying to reconnect with them. Acknowledging her problems is enough for Helen, and she even decides to leave Mabel at Stuart's house, at least for the six months of her molt. There is an extremely high probability that she will move on with her life in these six months and finally be able to let go of the bird that had become the center of her world just a short time ago. This truly marks the beginning of her return to normalcy, as she acknowledges her struggles with depression and stops before it's too late.
H Is for Hawk ends with a poignant scene of Alisdair taking Helen to the source of the mighty River Thames, which is actually just a small underground spring. Similarly, in the bigger picture and compared to her subsequent achievements, the small setback of a few months is, in fact, like a tiny spring, which only gives her the strength to grow in life.
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