One Thousand and One
After a nearly five-year hiatus, director A. V. Rockwell debuts her first directorial feature film A Thousand and One. The movie premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was released by Focus Features in March of that same year. The movie follows Inez De La Paz (played powerfully by Teyana Taylor), an orphan that has been recently released from Riker’s Island. The year is 1993 and Inez has returned to Brooklyn, in hopes of resuming her job as a hairstylist. She soon finds a 6-year-old Terry (played by Aaron Kingsley Adetola) and begins to spy on the child. Inez and Terry meet again after Terry has an accident where he falls from his foster home’s window. Inez having been an orphan herself knows the struggles of the foster care system and ponders if Terry should endure the same instability as her.
The hospital scene was especially riveting. Inez prepares to say goodbye to Terry expecting social services to move him to a new home following the accident. Terry is withdrawn and not much of a talker. He asks Inez “Why keep leaving me?” demonstrating the distrust the foster care system has embedded within him. It is implied that Inez has been relatively absent in his upbringing as the foster care system has claimed the child. In a swift second, Inez shuts the rooms door and leaning against the wall, she begins to take sudden breathes as she trembles. She decides then, she is going to kidnap the boy. Teyana Taylor executes the scene flawlessly, her body language and even the way her face trembles with heartbreak, her lips quiver, it all passes by quickly but amounts to a realistic and emotional internal turmoil. Having grown up in foster care, Inez offers to take Terry in and brings him home to Harlem, where she grew up.
Inez has no real plan. She has no job. Nowhere to live. She is stern and tough. She can be impulsive and brash, but she is loyal and resourceful. She has heart despite the cards life has dealt her. She is a survivor and yes, she can be ‘loud’ or ‘abrasive’ at her ‘worst’ but fundamentally, she has been through a lot and is determined to embark on a fresh start with Terry. The next scene opens with hip hop music as shots of New York and Harlem consume the screen. It feels like home. It feels familiar. It is a love letter to the neighborhood. Their day in Harlem starts off innocently enough, they explore the neighborhood and stop by a pizzeria but as night approached, Inez is desperately looking for a place to crash and as a tired and hungry Terry as kids often do, begins to get irritable and question where they are going to stay, she has a moment of impatience. At a phonebooth, she tries to call some friends in hopes of finding a place to stay but to no avail. Terry gets upset and Inez does as well, and she yells at him cursing at him. In a moment of frustration, she mentions calling his foster mother and he demands to stay with her. She explains, “I’ll go to war for you… they not breaking us up this time” and Terry assures Inez that they are in this together.
The movie has several snippets of information throughout that also deal with the rapidly changing New York around this time. The setting is integral to the story as the politics and changes within the city directly affect Inez and Terry. Inez obtains some fraudulent documents to give Terry a new identity and they eventually find themselves an apartment to call home apartment 10-01 but the dash is missing in the dilapidated building hence, a thousand and one. Eventually, Inez’s boyfriend, Lucky (played charismatically by Will Catlett) is released from jail and the two reunite. Lucky has no interest in being a father but nonetheless Terry and him begin to grow close. Lucky marries Inez and makes it abundantly clear to Terry that he is going to be there for both of them. Now they are blood. The movie then jumps to 2001 to a now 13-year-old Terry (played by Aven Courtney) and a more tired and mature Inez. Aven Courtney is able to maintain a lot of the quietness and meekness portrayed by Adetola. Despite having spent the past few years reunited with Inez, the impact of being in foster care has left a permanent scar on Terry that isn’t explicitly stated but demonstrated through subtle visual cues and mannerisms that Courtney persists. The jump in time has also taken a toll on Inez. In a lot of ways, she did it. She was able to get a place for Terry and her. She married her lover Lucky and Terry is excelling in school. She found a stable job. But this stability has managed to also drain some of Inez’s color. Yes, she has matured but she is tired, and Taylor conveys that masterfully. Long are the days of passion for hairstyling. It is implied heavily that doing hair is something Inez not only enjoys doing but she is also a talented hair stylist. She can make others feel beautiful but doing hair wasn’t sustainable for her and Terry. So, like many mothers, she puts her dreams on the backburner to better provide for her son. The changes of New York in the 90s leading up to the early and mid 2000s due to Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his Broken Windows approach to crime control, cracking down on petty crimes to the managerial mayoralty of Michael Bloomberg that increased gentrification in historical neighborhoods such as Harlem and the rampant stop-and-frisk procedures the NYPD conducted. A lot of changes in the clothing, the city itself, the technology, and the culture. All this change within the city also reflects itself within Inez and Terry. Terry low-key battles with his identity throughout the movie as he gets older. His academic potential can open many doors for him and can ensure a better future but at the cost of leaving behind his peers and alienating himself from his environment. Even as he gets older and the movie jumps to 2005 and the now 17-year-old Terry (played by Josiah Cross) is applying for colleges he struggles to joyfully embrace the opportunity.
The movie is truly moving perhaps due to its implementation of a lot of real-world perspectives and A. V. Rockwell’s personal life. The ending is what many may remember but the overall story and relationship between Inez and Terry is the core of the movie. Teyana Taylor stands out for her volatile and passionate performance as Inez. The movie touches upon a multitude of themes in such a rich and insightful way that can really start a lot of dialogue. The music and camera work oozes New York City and the themes of family run deep in this movie due to the main performances.