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In the official trailer for Rebecca Hall’s Passing, Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga depict the lives of two Black women during the height of the Harlem Renaissance in 1920s New York.
The film, based on the novel of the same name from Nella Larsen, focuses on Irene (Thompson) and Clare (Negga), two former childhood friends who can pass for white. In the black-and-white trailer, Irene celebrates Black culture with her family during the Harlem Renaissance. Meanwhile, Clare, with her blond hair, embraces passing for another race and marries a white man, played by Alexander Skarsgard, who says he “hates” Black people. When the two reunite, Irene welcomes Clare back into her life despite their differences.
“All of us are passing for something or other,” Thompson says in the trailer.
Hall made her directorial debut with Passing, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in January. She adapted the screenplay as well. Passing also stars Bill Camp, Gbenga Akinnagbe and Antoinette Crowe-Legacy. Forest Whitaker, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Margot Hand, and Hall serve as executive producers.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Negga addressed the movie’s universal themes. “I think we all wear a mask of a kind, many masks, and sometimes we switch them in and switch them out. I think that’s just basic survival, really,” she said at the time.
Passing will be shown in select theaters starting Oct. 27 before being released on Netflix on Nov. 10.
Watch the trailer below.
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