Screening preceded by an introduction by producer Jeremy Kleiner.
Writer/director Philippa Lowthorpe (MISBEHAVIOUR; THE CROWN) and co-writer Emma Donoghue (ROOM) adapt Helen Macdonald’s acclaimed, award-winning 2014 memoir “H is for Hawk” for the big screen. Claire Foy stars as Macdonald, a Cambridge academic who, following the sudden death of her beloved father Alisdair (Brendan Gleeson) — a veteran photojournalist and nature lover — takes on the training, care and feeding of a goshawk. This all-consuming task soon dominates her daily schedule and all her attention to the exclusion of work, family, friends and the state of her apartment. But in this act of devotion, Macdonald finds a way to mourn and remember her father, “the only person who really understood me,” with cherished memories returning in flashback. Macdonald’s unique voice and approach to the grieving process take flight literally and figuratively in Lowthorpe’s inspired adaptation. Occasional surreal moments — Macdonald walking around campus and the streets of Cambridge with a raptor on her arm — combine with breathtaking images of the bird in flight and on the hunt. In deep communion with nature, its rhythms and order, Macdonald eventually finds healing and well-being. –Todd Hitchcock
