MESTISH TONES CROSSING THE COLOR-LINE

REPRESENTATIONS OF BLACK WOMEN IN THE FILM IDENTITY

Abstract

The film Identity (2021), directed by Rebecca Hall, is based on the novel Passing by Nella Larsen, published in 1929. The article refers to the values and racial ideology that circulated in American society after the abolition of slavery in the country in the 19th century, and which are expressed in the film narrative. In this context, from a sociological and narratological perspective, it analyses the identity crisis of the protagonists Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry and the complexity of the performance of whiteness practised by the latter. The article concludes that, through its fictional representation, in which the resources of cinematographic language are evident, the film translates the complexity of the process of constituting the identity of the subject and denounces the mechanisms of oppression imposed by the hegemonic class on social groups because of their race, gender and class, denying them recognition of their dignity.