Whether it’s relating to one side of the family, or feeling a need to pick a side in order to survive, navigating a world that prefers to label things in Black and white can be tricky for those who exist in the in-between.

That’s the focus of Rebecca Hall’s new drama Passing, which beautifully examines the concept of racial ‘passing’ in a way that feels nuanced and acknowledges this crucial aspect of American history which is rarely discussed.

The black-and-white film is an adaptation of late novelist Nella Larsen’s book of the same name, which explores the complexities of race, gender and social class in the 1920s, through the eyes of two childhood friends.

The movie follows Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga), two mixed-race women who were former school friends and happen to run into each other in an upscale Manhattan hotel in prohibition-era America.

Passing review: Ruth Negga and Tessa Thompson shine in the magnetic and melodramatic directorial debut from Rebecca Hall