We already know that Rebecca Hall does great work in front of the camera. With her directorial debut, Passing, she's showing some real chops behind it as well. Watch the first trailer for the drama, which stars Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson, below.
Hall adapted the script from the celebrated 1929 novel of the same name by Nella Larsen, and Passing tells the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield (Thompson) and 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 (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, whose own racist husband (Alexander Skarsgard) is unaware of her true race.
With Bill Camp, Gbenga Akinnagbe and Antoinette Crowe-Legacy also in the cast, Passing will be in select cinemas across the pond on 27 October, before hitting Netflix on 10 November.