THE HAWK

For some time now, the brutally raped and murdered victims of a serial killer have been found along the motorway. People call him “the hawk” because he plucks out the eyes of his victims. In the north of England lives Annie (Helen Mirren), an ordinary housewife, with her two children and her husband, Stephen (George Costigan), who is often on the road for his work. News of the murders slowly seeps into people’s living rooms, and horrible doubts begin to creep in on Annie. With growing fear, she checks her husband’s diary and compares the dates of the murders with his absences. Doubts become suspicions; fear turns to terror. Annie’s biggest problem is that she cannot be sure of herself. Perhaps she is sinking into one of those paranoid depressions that invariably beset her after the birth of her children. Her obsessive behaviour is beginning to frighten her children, but she needs to know. Is her husband guilty, or is she drowning in her own paranoia? The police can’t help her, and her friends think she is going crazy. To protect herself and her children, Annie has only one way out…

Whenever there is a serial killer at work, the police are inundated with calls from women claiming that their husband or partner is the culprit. This example of relational trust was the starting point for the book The Hawk. Producer Mark Shivas managed to steal the rights to the story from Steven Spielberg himself. The BBC took care of the necessary money. David Hayman (of the award-winning Silent Scream), known as an unconventional daredevil, made sure the film became an intense psychological drama, constantly shifting between Annie’s alleged insanity and the suspicions against her husband. With the always excellent Helen Mirren (Excalibur, Cal, 2010) who plays the role of Annie and George Costigan as the suspicious husband.