HURRICANE

THIS HISTORICAL THRILLER TELLS THE STORY OF THE STORM THAT RAGED OVER ENGLAND IN THE SUMMER OF 1940, AND THE POLISH ‘KNIGHTS OF THE AIR’ WHO CAME TO DEFEND BRITAIN AGAINST GERMAN INVASION

UK Release Date: 7 September Director: David Blair

If ever there were a group of people whose actions in real life were so genuinely heroic and worthy of their legendary status, it is without a doubt the pilots and crews of the Polish squadrons that fought in the Battle of Britain. Directed by Scottish filmmaker David Blair, Hurricane tells their story and their part in the valiant defence against Nazi invasion nearly 80 years ago.

The cast is led by Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones, Inhumans), and includes, among others, Milo Gibson (Hacksaw Ridge), Stefanie Martini (Crooked House, Prime Suspect 1973) and Marcin Dorocinski, probably best known to British audiences from Jack Strong and Anthropoid.

With an adventurer’s glint in his eye, Rheon’s committed portrayal of legendary fighter pilot ace Jan Zumbach is truly impressive. Usually, when actors play Polish-speaking characters, they say at most a few sentences, but in Hurricane, Rheon delivers the majority of his performance in Polish, which is no small feat.

It may be tempting, especially in a review for a history magazine, to pick out factual inaccuracies, but as every filmmaker knows, creating anything is never without some forms of compromise. No human life or true event smoothly follows the storytelling arch of a film. That said, Hurricane would have benefitted from a more accurately detailed focus on individual pilots and their real-life fates. Instead, a few scenes felt unnecessarily constructed, along with some flashback expositions that felt rather blunt.

The film perhaps also lacks some of the poetry in motion and a true sense of the organic fusion between man and machine, where charging at 135-180 metres (450-600 feet) per second at an altitude of 6,000 metres (20,000 feet) created something of a parallel, almost otherworldly existence, as brilliantly described in Arkady Fiedler’s classic book 303 Squadron.

Yet, while in the film’s portrayal the Polish pilots may come across as more scruffy than elegant, it does convey more important qualities – their exceptional flying skill and grit. It also shows many of the difficulties they had to overcome in just a few weeks to fly for the RAF. The film also doesn’t shy away from the subject of Britain’s shameful treatment of its Polish allies as the war ends, and in today’s political climate, the film’s focus on Polish-british relations feels as important as ever.

Most of the dogfights are well executed, and many scenes in the film are surprisingly gripping, even down to brief moments; a bullet-riddled pilot desperately trying to bale out over open sea, or another pilot falling asleep, exhausted, the very moment his aircraft touches down, safely back on ground.

With a story that has waited a long time to be told on screen, and now comes in time for the 100th anniversary of both the formation of the Polish Air Force and the RAF, Hurricane will hopefully reach a wide and much-deserved audience.

Hurricane is released in UK cinemas and on digital platforms 7 September. For more go to hurricanefilm.co.uk

“THE FILM ALSO DOESN’T SHY AWAY FROM THE SUBJECT OF BRITAIN’S SHAMEFUL TREATMENT OF ITS POLISH ALLIES AS THE WAR ENDS, AND IN TODAY’S POLITICAL CLIMATE, THE FILM’S FOCUS ON POLISH-BRITISH RELATIONS FEELS AS IMPORTANT AS EVER”