Limerick star Ruth Negga is continuing her meteoric rise in the film industry, landing a role in the upcoming movie Passing .

The film will be set in the late 1920's. It is said to tackling issues of racial profiling in the US. Negga will play the part of Clare Kendry. She stars alongside Tessa Thompson who will play her best friend.

The film's title can be taken as a reference to "racial passing" - often used to describe a person who belongs within one racial group yet is perceived to be belonging to another.

Rebecca Hall has been announced as the director. She shared the story of how she fell in love with the novel (which was written by Nella Larsen in 1929).

Hall said, "I came across the novel at a time when I was trying to reckon creatively with some of my personal family history, and the mystery surrounding my biracial grandfather on my American mother's side. In part, making this film is an exploration of that history, to which I've never really had access".

Negga has been receiving a lot of attention for her acting work recently. Having stared in the Oscar-nominated film Loving in 2017 - tackling the fight for interracial couples to marry.

Her upcoming performance in the Gate's production of Hamlet is highly anticipated.