Passages (2023) - Feature
A SBS Production
Directed by Ira Sachs
Co-written by Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias
91 minutes, HD Video, Color, 2023
Film Festival Selections:
2023 Sundance Film Festival, Premieres Selection
2023 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, Panorama
Synopsis:
After completing his latest project, filmmaker Tomas (Franz Rogowski) impulsively begins a heated love affair with a young schoolteacher, Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos). For Tomas, the novelty of being with a woman is an exciting experience that he is eager to explore despite his marriage to Martin (Ben Whishaw). But when Martin begins his own affair, the mercurial Tomas refocuses his attentions on his husband. Set in contemporary Paris, PASSAGES charts an escalating battle of desire between three people, where want is a constant and happiness is just out of reach. Exquisitely shot and featuring honest, emotionally nuanced performances, Sachs has created a breathtakingly intimate and insightful drama exploring the complexities, contradictions, and cruelties of love and longing.
Press:
“Adroit casting, writing, editing, performing and costuming shade the outline of an affair to a finely sharpened emotional realism, the cycles of fighting and reconciling we’ve all seen before regaining in rawness as if we’re now the ones living through it.” - Charles Bramesco, The Playlist
“The abruptness, the willfulness, the ferocity of Passages reflect, more than any other film by an American director that I’ve seen in a while, the influence of Pialat.” - Richard Brody, The New Yorker
“[Ira Sachs] packs more incident, life and unassuming complexity into 90 minutes than most filmmakers muster in twice that run time.” - Jon Frosch, The Hollywood Reporter
“Ira Sachs’ radiantly sexual three-hander Passages couldn’t have assembled a finer trio of actors to explore modern love in all its splendor and messiness.” - Jordan Raup, The Film Stage
“The raw and resonant Passages is the kind of fuck around and find out love triangle that rings true because we aspire to its sexier moments but see ourselves in its most selfish ones.” - David Ehrlich, Indiewire