Netflix has released the official Passing trailer for actress-turned-director Rebecca Hall’s forthcoming feature directorial debut, starring Tessa Thompson, and Ruth Negga. The film is scheduled to arrive in select theaters this October and will be followed by its Netflix debut on November 10.
The video, which you can check out below along with the poster, highlighting the reunion of two mixed-race childhood friends, who are now living completely opposite lives with the other one now passing as a white person. It also teases how their reunion will affect each other’s lives as they deal with the consequences of their lies and insecurities.
Get ready for Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut PASSING, on Netflix November 10. pic.twitter.com/yqznM9Ohcc
— NetflixFilm (@NetflixFilm) September 21, 2021
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Based on Nella Larsen’s Harlem Renaissance novel of the same name from 1929, Passing, which was shot in black-and-white, is described as an exploration of racial identity set in 1920s New York. It follows the events set off by a reunion of two childhood friends named Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield, who are both mixed-race women.
Pick up a copy of the novel here.
“The film tells the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, who can “pass” as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line during the height of the Harlem Renaissance in late 1920s New York,” reads the official synopsis. “After a chance encounter reunites the former childhood friends one summer afternoon, Irene reluctantly allows Clare into her home, where she ingratiates herself to Irene’s husband and family, and soon her larger social circle as well. As their lives become more deeply intertwined, Irene finds her once-steady existence upended by Clare, and Passing becomes a riveting examination of obsession, repression, and the lies people tell themselves and others to protect their carefully constructed realities.”
The film adaptation stars Tessa Thompson (Sorry to Bother You), Ruth Negga (Loving), André Holland (Moonlight), and Alexander Skarsgård (Big Little Lies) along with Bill Camp, Ashley Ware Jenkins, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, and Gbenga Akinnagbe.
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Passing is written and directed by Golden Globe-nominated actress Rebecca Hall (Vicky Christina Barcelona, Christine). The film is produced by Hall, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker, and Margot Hand with Thompson and Negga also set as executive producers.
The film had its world premiere earlier this year at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. After that, Netflix has successfully won the rights to the film against four other bidders, which reportedly cost around $15.75 million.
