The untold story
How Hurricane — the first release from Rakuten Cinema, the Rakuten TV project dedicated to movie co-productions and distribution — exposes a forgotten chapter of World War II
WHEN THE SCRIPT for World War II movie Hurricane landed on director David Blair’s desk, he had never heard of the 303 Polish Fighter Squadron, a unit of Polish-born pilots who fought valiantly alongside Britain and its allies in the Battle Of Britain, and beyond. “It’s something I knew nothing about,” the Scottish filmmaker admits. “I was quite surprised.” As it turns out, very few British people have heard of the squadron — and that’s partly by design. As the closing titles for Hurricane notes, the extraordinary efforts of the squadron weren’t officially recognised until 1992.
“To me, it’s unaccountable,” says Bafta-winner Blair, who felt compelled to bring the story of the daring squadron of flyboys to the screen. “When you hear the history, it’s usually just a British victory in a British war. But if you look up the list of deceased, particularly in the Battle Of Britain, it’s South Africa, it’s Australia, it’s the Czech Republic, it’s Poland — it’s a whole mass of people that are involved.”
It may be some misplaced form of patriotic embarrassment that forced the Brits to sweep the Polish contributions to the war under the table. Of all the squadrons to fly Hawker Hurricane fighters during the nearly four-month 1940 campaign for air supremacy above Britain’s skies, the 303 was the highest scoring, taking down about 20 per cent of the German aircraft. They also had the best ratio of enemy casualties versus their own — and they did it all in less time than the other squadrons. It’s ripe material, argues Blair, for a gripping war movie.
But how did they beat the RAF at their own game? Blair has a few theories. “A lot of them had been used to flying in
open cockpits,” he explains, “so their spatial awareness was second-to-none. That was their radar, if you like. It was hugely instinctive.” Crucially, however, they had the motivation to fight. Poland was under Nazi occupation at the time, and many of the pilots were in exile, with only scraps of information about the brutal treatment being served to their loved ones. “They had no idea what was happening back home,” says Blair. “We allude to this in the film. There was information filtering through to the Polish government in exile, but of course it would be vague. That would surely have galvanised them in battle.”
In order to do justice to the story, Blair kept one of the film’s screenwriters, Robert Ryan, nearby as a sounding board, using Ryan’s experience as a World War II writer to steer him in the right direction. “He was a wonderful point of contact for me,” says Blair. “‘How likely is this, how likely is that...?’ Obviously there’ll be plane enthusiasts telling us that a flap’s wrong, or something. But what I was very keen to do was absolutely protect the essence of the story and what those men did.”
Leading those men is Game Of Thrones’ Iwan Rheon, as flying ace Jan Zumbach. Blair confirms that Welsh-born Rheon did not shirk from the language challenge. “It was incredible what he did,” marvels Blair. “He learned Polish. It helped the camaraderie in the group. The Polish actors were very keen to help and support him.”
The hope, says Blair, is that the 303 squadron eventually become identified as the national heroes they already are in their native Poland, and he is optimistic the film’s unique distribution model will help spread the story far and wide. “It’s an important moment in British history,” he says. “It does no harm to give these people the credit and merit they deserve.”
Hurricane will be Rakuten Cinema’s first release, and will be showing in cinemas and on digital VOD this autumn, in partnership with Kaleidoscope Entertainment