Acquired for a reported $15.75M following its debut at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival (read our ★★★ review here), Netflix have released the trailer for Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut Passing.
Based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel of the same name, Passing follows the events set off by a reunion between two childhood friends named Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga) and Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson), who are both mixed-race women who choose to live on opposite sides of the color line. Check out the trailer below…
Adapted from the celebrated 1929 novel of the same name by Nella Larsen, PASSING tells the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Academy Award nominee Ruth Negga), 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. 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 (André Holland) 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.
Passing is in select theaters this October and will debut on Netflix on November 10th.