A Thousand and One
Theatrical release poster
Directed byA.V. Rockwell
Written byA.V. Rockwell
Produced by
  • Eddie Vaisman
  • Julia Lebedev
  • Lena Waithe
  • Rishi Rajani
  • Brad Weston
Starring
  • Teyana Taylor
  • Will Catlett
  • Josiah Cross
  • Aven Courtney
  • Aaron Kingsley Adetola
CinematographyEric K. Yue
Edited by
  • Sabine Hoffman
  • Kristan Sprague
Music byGary Gunn
Production
companies
  • Sight Unseen
  • Hillman Grad Productions
  • Makeready
Distributed byFocus Features (United States)
Universal Pictures[1] (International)
Release dates
  • January 22, 2023 (2023-01-22) (Sundance)
  • March 31, 2023 (2023-03-31) (United States)
Running time
116 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$3.5 million[3][4]

A Thousand and One is a 2023 American drama film, written and directed by A.V. Rockwell in her feature directorial debut. The film stars Teyana Taylor, Will Catlett, Josiah Cross, Aven Courtney and Aaron Kingsley Adetola. Set in the 1990s and 2000s, it follows a single mother who decides to kidnap her son out of the foster care system to raise him herself, as the two struggle with life in a constantly changing New York City.

It had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2023, and won the Grand Jury Prize.[5] It was released on March 31, 2023, by Focus Features.

Plot

In 1994, hairdresser and convicted thief Inez de la Paz is released from Rikers Island and returns to the Brooklyn neighborhood of her former shelter, where she sees her son Terry with other children from his foster home out on the street. When Terry is hospitalized after trying to escape from the home, Inez secretly visits him. He tells her about his earliest memory: of Inez abandoning him on a street corner when he was two years old.

Inez notifies Terry that they will lose contact again when he is placed at a new foster home. Visibly shaken after he accuses her of repeated abandonment, Inez asks if Terry wants to come live with her. When he says yes, Inez impulsively abducts him from the hospital, escaping to her childhood neighborhood of Harlem.

Inez and Terry stay at a variety of homes until she saves up enough money from a new job at a nursing home to afford an apartment. During conversation with Ms. Annie, whom Inez rents a room from for a short period of time, it's implied that Inez lost her own parents during the crack epidemic. She arranges a false birth certificate and social security card for Terry so that she can enroll him in school, and reunites with an old boyfriend and fellow thief named Lucky. Though seemingly uncomfortable with the situation, he and Inez get married and he promises to take care of Terry. Both Inez and Lucky invest in Mayor Rudy Giuliani's promise of an improved city, in hopes that it will offer a better upbringing for Terry than their own.

Harlem continues to change despite highly reported cases of police brutality throughout the city, culminating with Guiliani's rollout of stop-and-frisk. By 2001, Inez still lives in the same apartment with Terry though her marriage to Lucky has become strained due to his long absences and infidelities. Terry excels at his schoolwork despite these problems at home and continual harassment from police, and is recommended for placement in a STEM-based specialized school.

Terry does not want to go due to dreams of becoming a composer, but agrees to take the placement exam to satisfy Inez and Lucky's wishes for him to have a better life than they have had. Inez fails to reconcile with Lucky, but he affirms his love for and support of Terry, which convinces Terry to go. Michael Bloomberg becomes the next Mayor and the Harlem area continues to evolve with the tearing down of local and historic institutions as nationwide chainstores and luxury housing developments are introduced.

In 2005, Lucky gradually succumbs to cancer in the hospital as Terry prepares for college and their new landlord attempts to drive them out of the apartment. When his guidance counselor asks for his birth certificate and social security card for a job, Terry gives her his forged ones without telling Inez. When the documents come back as invalid, a reluctant Terry reveals the deception, prompting the counselor to call social services. Terry warns Inez, who flees before social services arrive and reveal to Terry that she is not his biological mother at all, putting him in another home.

Terry flees the home, and after Inez' best friend Kim invites him to live with her, returns to the apartment, where he finds Inez collecting her belongings. She confesses that she was not the woman who abandoned Terry on the streetcorner in his memory, but the woman who found him and treated him like a son ever since. Terry affirms that he still loves her as a mother, but the two separate once again. Before entering a taxi to an uncertain future, Inez promises Terry that "this isn't goodbye."

Cast

  • Teyana Taylor as Inez de la Paz
  • Aaron Kingsley Adetola as Terry (6 years old)
  • Aven Courtney as Terry (13 years old)
  • Josiah Cross as Terry (17 years old)
  • Will Catlett as Lucky
  • Terri Abney as Kim Jones

Production

In December 2020, it was announced A.V. Rockwell would write and direct the film, with Lena Waithe set to serve as a producer under Hillman Grad Productions banner, and Focus Features set to distribute.[1] In July 2021, Teyana Taylor joined the cast of the film.[6]

The film was shot in 2021, which Rockwell described as difficult due to COVID and the increased development that New York City saw during that period.[7] "If you thought gentrification was going crazy, it went on steroids over the pandemic," she said. "So, I do feel like if we would’ve waited even just a summer longer, I don’t know if we would’ve been able to make this movie in New York."[7]

Release

It had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2023. The film was released on March 31, 2023, by Focus Features.[8]

Reception

Box office

Released alongside His Only Son, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, and the wide expansion of A Good Person, the film made $700,000 from 926 theaters on its first day, and went on to debut to $1.72 million, finishing in seventh.[9]

Critical response

Teyana Taylor received critical acclaim for her role in the film.

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 116 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.10/10. The website's consensus reads: "A tribute to parental devotion and a testament to Teyana Taylor's talent, A Thousand and One presents a heart-wrenching portrait of perseverance in the face of systemic inequity."[10] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 81 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[11]

Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it a 76% positive score, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend it.[9][12]

Accolades

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Sundance Film Festival January 27, 2023 Grand Jury Prize – Dramatic A Thousand and One Won [13]
Hollywood Critics Association Midseason Film Awards June 30, 2023 Best Indie A Thousand and One Nominated [14]
Best Actress Teyana Taylor Nominated
Jerusalem Film Festival July 23, 2023 Best International Debut A Thousand and One Nominated [15]
Gotham Independent Film Awards November 27, 2023 Best Feature A Thousand and One Nominated [16]
Breakthrough Director A.V. Rockwell Won
Outstanding Lead Performance Teyana Taylor Nominated
Celebration of Cinema & Television December 4, 2023 Breakthrough Performance Award Teyana Taylor Won [17]

References

  1. 1 2 D'Alessandro, Anthony (December 2, 2020). "Focus Features Greenlights Drama 'A Thousand And One' From Sundance Alum A.V. Rockwell". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 22, 2023. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
  2. ↑ "A Thousand and One". Sundance Film Festival. Archived from the original on January 21, 2023. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
  3. ↑ "A Thousand and One (2023)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
  4. ↑ "A Thousand and One (2023)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved August 17, 2023.
  5. ↑ "'A Thousand and One' wins Sundance grand jury prize". apnews.com. January 27, 2023. Archived from the original on January 29, 2023. Retrieved January 29, 2023.
  6. ↑ Kroll, Justin (July 28, 2021). "Teyana Taylor To Star in A.V. Rockwell's Directing Debut 'A Thousand And One'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on July 26, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
  7. 1 2 Staff, Filmmaker (March 16, 2023). "One Step Ahead: Chinonye Chukwu Interviews A.V. Rockwell on A Thousand and One | Filmmaker Magazine". Filmmaker Magazine | Publication with a focus on independent film, offering articles, links, and resources. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  8. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony; Patten, Dominic (December 7, 2022). "Sundance Film Festival Lineup Set With Ukraine War, Little Richard, Michael J. Fox, Judy Blume Docs; Pics With Anne Hathaway, Emilia Clarke, Jonathan Majors; More". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 29, 2023. Retrieved January 22, 2023.
  9. 1 2 D'Aleessandro, Anthony (April 2, 2023). "'Dungeons & Dragons' Locks Up $38.5M Opening, Nabs A- CinemaScope – Sunday Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  10. ↑ "A Thousand and One". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved August 24, 2023.
  11. ↑ "A Thousand and One". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved August 24, 2023.
  12. ↑ Goldsmith, Jill (April 2, 2023). "Arthouse Crowd Warms To Tough New York Drama 'A Thousand And One'; 'His Only Son' Sustains Faith-Based Winning Streak – Specialty Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  13. ↑ Garufi, Sergio (January 31, 2023). "Sundance Film Festival 2023, all the winners". MIA | Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  14. ↑ Anderson, Erik (June 30, 2023). "Hollywood Critics Association 2023 Midseason HCA Awards: 'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,' 'Past Lives,' 'Air' are Top Winners". AwardsWatch. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  15. ↑ "2023 Jerusalem Film Fest announces international movie lineup". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. June 28, 2023. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  16. ↑ Lewis, Hilary (October 24, 2023). "'Past Lives,' 'A Thousand and One' and 'All of Us Strangers' Top Gotham Awards Film Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 14, 2023.
  17. ↑ "The Critics Choice Association Announces Honorees for the Celebration of Cinema & Television: Honoring Black, Latino and AAPI Achievements – Critics Choice Awards". Retrieved November 14, 2023.
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