Emmy nominee Tessa Thompson (Sylvie’s Love) and Oscar nominee Ruth Negga (Loving) star in the 2021 adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel, Passing, which premiered to positive reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. Netflix just released a gorgeous new trailer for the drama that marks the feature film directorial debut of actor Rebecca Hall (The Night House). Hall also adapted the novel for the screen.
Thompson and Negga lead a cast that includes André Holland (Castle Rock), Bill Camp (The Queen’s Gambit), Gbenga Akinnagbe (The Deuce), Antoinette Crowe-Legacy (Godfather of Harlem), and Alexander Skarsgard (Big Little Lies). Writer/director Hall, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker, and Margot Hand served as producers.
Passing will open in select theaters on October 27, 2021 followed by a November 10th release on Netflix.
The Plot, Courtesy of Netflix:
Adapted from the celebrated 1929 novel of the same name by Nella Larsen, Passing tells the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield (Thompson) and Clare Kendry (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 (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.
