"Hawker" is a short film by Daniel Arbon and Middle Realm Productions. Based on the true events of 25th July 1915 when Captain Lanoe Hawker became the first British Airman to successfully shoot down an enemy aircraft in flames.
Made on a small crowdfunded budget, and shot largely in the house and garden of the Director, this passion project also features real aeroplane footage of Bristol Scout 1264, filmed at Old Warden Aerodrome.
- SYNOPSIS -
Captain Lanoe Hawker is a British pilot in the Royal Flying Corps during the first years of WW1. The aviators’ duties are observation and reconnaissance, an ongoing mission that puts them over German lines and into regular contact with enemy aircraft. When the Germans start to mount machine-guns on the rear of their two-seater planes, the situation gets perilous for the unarmed British.With forward firing machine guns still only in development, Hawker refuses to let the Germans achieve air supremacy. With his innovative and pioneering drive, he has managed to mount a Lewis machine gun to the side of his new Bristol Scout. He just needs to prove it can work and convince his superiors that there is a new task in military aviation, the role of the Fighter Pilot!As he achieves his goal, the first German aircraft fall from the sky in a ball of flames. Visiting the crash site at night, through the mud of the trenches and shell holes, Hawker finds the Iron Cross once worn by his fallen adversary. In this moment he is faced with the brutal reality of the new fate that awaits so many Airmen to come, and a faint premonition of his own fall. Faced with this new inevitably, he must find the reason and courage to continue.
- CAST -
Lanoe Hawker - Tom Lewin
Louis Strange - Tom Everatt
Lt Col Burke - Daniel Arbon
Major Shepherd - Ciaran Walshe
Sgt Maj Hibbert - Bill Brookman
Beatrice Bayly - Charlotte Ellen
Staff Officer - Ryan O'Grady
Ernest Elton - Lewis Allcock
Manfred Von Richthofen - Nick Kanoa
Produced/Written/Directed/Edited by Daniel Arbon and Charlotte Ellen
Director of Photography - Ash Connaughton
Original Music Composed and Orchestrated by Patrick Neil Doyle
VFX by Daniel Arbon
Bristol Scout 1264, built and flown by David Bremner
For more information on this project, visit hawkerfilm.com
To read more about Lanoe Hawker - greatwaraviation.org/the-anatomy-of-an-aircraft/
