H is for Hawk

Cambridge lecturer Helen has a very close relationship with her father. When he dies unexpectedly one day, her world collapses. She ends up in a deep emotional crisis and increasingly withdraws from her social life. One day, she buys a hawk named Mabel from a bird dealer and begins to train the bird of prey, which takes up more and more of her time. What started as a distraction turns into an obsession; she barely pays any attention to her mother and brother, or her good friend Christina, and her work suffers as well. For Helen, however, it is the only way to cope with the pain.

In 2014, British author Helen Macdonald published the autobiographical novel H is for Hawk about the time she spent training a hawk after the loss of her father. British director Philippa Lowthorpe adapted it into a film starring Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson. The hawk can also be admired in all its beauty.