File this under “Everything old is new again…” since, back in 1949, Elia Kazan directed Pinky with Jeanne Crain as a light-skinned Black woman in love with a white doctor who is unaware of her race. Now there’s Passing, revolving around light-skinned Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson), an upper-middle-class doctor’s dutiful wife who is active in the Negro League as part of the 1920s Harlem community.
When Irene renews her Chicago childhood friendship with lonely, light-skinned Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga), she’s shocked to discover that blonde-haired Clare is ‘passing’ as white. The two women’s lives become dangerously intertwined, as Clare longs for a deeper connection to the food, customs, and Black people she has left behind—particularly since Irene knows that the provocative, self-destructive Clare has never told the truth to her wealthy, white, overtly racist husband (Alexander Skarsgard).
Based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel, the film marks the writing/directing debut of British actress Rebecca Hall, daughter of Sir Peter Hall (founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company) and American opera singer Maria Ewing. For years, Hall intuitively sensed there were gaps in her mother’s biracial Detroit family history that no one discussed.
Considering Larsen’s Harlem Renaissance novel a psychological ‘noir,’ Hall wrote the first draft of her script in 10 days, revising it as she sought financing. Working with cinematographer Eduard Grau, Hall insisted on filming in black-and-white and on location in Harlem; she completed post-production during the pandemic. Perceptive, cleverly timed, if slow-paced, Passing—about identity and belonging—builds on the current conversation about color, cruelty, privilege, and secrets. Optional.