Rebecca Hall's 'Passing' Premieres at Rome Film Fest, Explores Racial Identity

Rebecca Hall's directorial debut 'Passing' premiered in the Official Selection of the Festa del Cinema di Roma and streams on Netflix from November 10. The film adapts Nella Larsen's 1929 novel, following Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga), two light-skinned Black women in 1920s New York who can 'pass' as white. Their chance encounter forces them to confront their mixed-race identities in a racist society. Clare, married to a racist banker (Alexander Skarsgård), seeks to reconnect with Black culture, while Irene, an activist, is unsettled by Clare's intrusion. The film explores themes of identity, repressed desire, and racial passing through subtext, silence, and cinematography by Eduard Grau that contrasts overexposed and underexposed visuals. The score is by Devonté Hynes. Hall drew on her own family history. Carlotta Petracci reviewed the film for Artribune.