A Thousand and One

Director: A.V. Rockwell

Motherhood and the changing face of America are the subject of A.V.Rockwell’s powerful new film A Thousand and One following a parental relationship taking place across a decade of social change in New York. A commentary about gentrification and education as the route to a better life, the central relationship between Inez and her son Terry carries the film against the backdrop as Rockwell explores the opportunities for those on low incomes as well as the social and political pressures that govern their lives.

Essentially kidnapping her own son from a care facility as a young child, Inez obtains false documents that allow her to hide him with her in Harlem, enrol him in school and raise him to hope for a better life. Shunted around at first, Inez finally finds a stable home for her family and welcomes partner Lucky to act as Terry’s father figure. But growing up in the 1990s and early 2000s isn’t easy, and as Terry matures, there are plenty of problems that come between mother and son.

A Thousand and One is in some sense a biographical drama that covers a formative period in the young boy’s life and the many sacrifices and compromises that Inez must make to support their home. Giving up on her dream to be a hairdresser and taking any job that pays the bills creates a sense of the family struggle, but Inez is a deeply complex character, her actions often contrasting with a tendency to lose her temper especially with those trying to help her, to complain that no one else sees her point of view and to lash out without thinking that make this slightly more than an average film about a system taking advantage of single parents.

Rockwell contrasts this with Inez’s desire to raise Terry properly, giving him a life and a future that she never had, a purpose reiterated several times. She also instills really solid family values about respect and kindness in her son that make her such an interesting woman. That she has a prison record and snatched the boy is constantly being weighed up against the decent life she creates for him, and the good intentions that come with it, not to mention the lack of love it is suggested here would have received in the care system, and it makes the eventual and inevitable crashing down of their world they have constructed together all the more meaningful.

A Thousand and One – a subtle reference to their door number – is a little slow at first where director Rockwell hasn’t quite got the pacing right, while there are unexplained time leaps and digressions that paint a picture of their life at speed without necessarily contributing to the overall story, including the role of Inez’s friend who more or less disappears for a decade, while Terry’s attraction to a local girl in the café he spends time in mirrors his parents’ first meeting but doesn’t quite strand strong enough within the narrative to justify its inclusion.

Nonetheless, Teyana Taylor’s ranging performance as Inez is affecting, pushing the audience away at first before finding a balance as the character grows, leaving the audience with quite the dilemma in the pacier second half of the film. Likewise, young Terry is heartbreakingly good with Aaron Kingsley Adetola almost stealing the film as the quiet and introverted child, a performance that connects best to Josiah Cross’ third incarnation that does much of the emotional heavy lifting as his identity comes more clearly into focus. A film that builds its cumulative impact, Rockwell’s vision of New York is a cruel one, but one that’s full of love, however misguided.

A Thousand and One is released in cinemas on 21 April.