A Thou­sand And One

A Thou­sand And One marks the direc­to­r­i­al debut of A.V Rock­well, as well as record­ing artist Teyana Taylor’s first lead role. Both excel in this absorb­ing par­ent­hood dra­ma, which unsur­pris­ing­ly received the U.S. Dra­mat­ic Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sun­dance Film Festival.

Inez (Tay­lor), a spir­it­ed young woman, fin­ish­es a spell at Rik­ers Island prison and returns to her New York neigh­bour­hood eager to make a liv­ing. She recon­nects with her six-year-old son Ter­ry (Aaron Kings­ley Adeto­la) who is in fos­ter care, and rather than risk hav­ing to track him down again after it’s sug­gest­ed he’ll be moved to anoth­er home, Inez decides to kid­nap him. Instead of the film unfold­ing into a tense and inevitable stand­off between par­ent and pro­tec­tive ser­vices, the search for Ter­ry soon dies down and com­plete with coun­ter­feit doc­u­men­ta­tion, Inez is left to raise her son.

In depict­ing the pas­sage of time between the mid-90s and ear­ly 00s, the chang­ing face of New York is a dom­i­nant thread. The voic­es of for­mer May­ors Rudy Giu­liani and Michael Bloomberg boom across sweep­ing rooftop shots, used as a fram­ing device to illus­trate how their con­tro­ver­sial poli­cies shaped the lives of black and brown com­mu­ni­ties. Both men’s approach to polic­ing result­ed in fuel­ing ten­sions around police bru­tal­i­ty, while Bloomberg over­saw rezon­ing mea­sures and a surge in new devel­op­ments that began the process of push­ing poor­er peo­ple from their homes, result­ing in the gen­tri­fied Brook­lyn of today. A scene where Inez mar­vels at her affa­ble new landlord’s promis­es to replace bro­ken fur­ni­ture and faulty fit­tings evokes a tru­ly stom­ach-churn­ing feel­ing, as if wit­ness­ing a soon-to-be slash­er vic­tim let­ting the killer waltz right through their front door.

Tay­lor brings an impres­sive lev­el of nuance to her role, por­tray­ing a woman who is unapolo­getic about the deci­sions she’s had to make, yet aching­ly human in the moments where she swal­lows down her pain to keep a life togeth­er for those she loves. Gary Gunn’s breath­tak­ing score under­pins much of A Thou­sand And One’s stir­ring emo­tion. With a stir­ring open­ing theme that feels both roman­tic and dream­like, its del­i­cate notes soon blend with a more urgent pac­ing and pro­nounced beat. Reprised skil­ful­ly through­out the fea­ture, it embod­ies Rockwell’s love let­ter to New York and the hus­tle of its com­mu­ni­ties who dare to press on against all odds.

While a poignant fea­ture, A Thou­sand And One fal­ters slight­ly with its third act, becom­ing some­what mean­der­ing and feel­ing longer than its sub-two-hour run­time. Tay­lor cap­ti­vates when­ev­er she’s on-screen, and even with a strong per­for­mance by Josi­ah Cross as a teenage Ter­ry, the film miss­es her when she’s fea­tured less.

A Thou­sand And One is a pow­er­ful ode to resilience and com­mu­ni­ty, as well as a pas­sion­ate rebuke against the forces that pro­duce dev­as­tat­ing con­se­quences for those they sweep aside. A heart­felt snap­shot of a life that reflects the expe­ri­ences of so many real peo­ple, this is an impres­sive debut for Rock­well and Tay­lor – what comes next for both will be worth your attention.

Lit­tle White Lies is com­mit­ted to cham­pi­oning great movies and the tal­ent­ed peo­ple who make them.

By becom­ing a mem­ber you can sup­port our inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism and receive exclu­sive essays, prints, month­ly film rec­om­men­da­tions and more.