A Thousand and One

"Times change. Love stays the same."

2023 1h 56m EN

👍

6.6

SOLID

★6.6TMDB · 161

DramaCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Struggling but unapologetically living on her own terms, Inez is moving from shelter to shelter in mid-1990s New York City. With her 6-year-old son Terry in foster care and unable to leave him again, she kidnaps him so they can build their life together. As the years go by, their family grows and Terry becomes a smart yet quiet teenager, but the secret that has defined their lives threatens to destroy the home they have so improbably built.

“Times change. Love stays the same.”

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Cast

Teyana Taylor
Inez
William Catlett
Lucky
Josiah Cross
Terry
Aven Courtney
Terry 13 Year Old
Aaron Kingsley Adetola
Terry 6 Years Old
Terri Abney
Kim Jones
Delissa Reynolds
Mrs. Jones
Amelia Workman
Anita Tucker

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: A.V. Rockwell
Writers: A.V. Rockwell
Languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 3 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by A.V. Rockwell, shot by Eric K. Yue. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Gary Gunn. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Sabine Hoffman shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Teyana Taylor and William Catlett and Josiah Cross carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Times change. Love stays the same.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt12427158 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

A.V. Rockwell directs. Eric K. Yue behind the camera. Gary Gunn scores. Sabine Hoffman cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Portuguese, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 3 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish.
3Directed by A.V. Rockwell, shot by Eric K. Yue. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Gary Gunn. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Sabine Hoffman shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Teyana Taylor and William Catlett and Josiah Cross carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Times change. Love stays the same.".
8IMDB entry: tt12427158 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Eric K. Yue
Original score: Gary Gunn
Editing: Sabine Hoffman
Production design: Sharon Lomofsky
Costume design: Melissa Vargas
Makeup / hair: Jill McKay
VFX supervisor: Lucien Harriot
Sound: Luciano Vignola
Stunt coordinator: Roy T. Anderson
Runtime: 116 min · 1h 56m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $3,395,595
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: A Thousand and One (2023)

Awards

Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

A.V. Rockwell

Stills · wallpapers

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2023-05-16
★ 6/10
This features quite a strong performance from a convincing Teyana Taylor. She is "Inez" who decides that she wants to reclaim her young son "Terry" from his life on the streets of New York. What now ensues illustrates quite well the difficulties they both face as they both grow up with little by way of opportunity - or money - but determined to stick together despite their not always seeing eye to eye. Along the way, she marries "Lucky" (William Catlett), a decent man who offers some stability and it begins to look like "Terry" (by this stage played by Josiah Cross, but played well as a child by Aaron Kingsley Adetola) might just have a chance. Thing is, as the audience know by now, the relationship between mother and son is not as it seems - and the impending action of the authorities, coupled with a rather unscrupulous landlord, look like the wrecking ball is en route to their dreams. It meanders a bit too much for me, this film. It could have easily lost twenty minutes and the writing could have focussed better on developing the "Terry" character a little more, but it's still quite a powerful assessment of family values, loyalty and civic indifference that ought to make anyone sit up and take notice. It doesn't need a big screen - but is worth a watch on the telly.
Brent Marchant2024-01-03
★ 6/10
It’s been said that a mother’s love for her child runs so deep that she’ll do virtually anything to protect her young. But is it possible to carry things too far? That’s a question raised in writer-director A.V. Rockwell’s debut feature about a mother with a criminal record (Teyana Taylor) who kidnaps her young son (Aaron Kingsley Adetola) out of foster care upon her release from prison. She questions the adequacy of the care he is receiving as a ward of the state, and so she snatches him from his foster caretaker and hides him away as she seeks to get her life together. Over the next 11 years (1994-2005), she largely succeeds at this, too, even in the midst of many challenges, including an often-uneven relationship with her former partner in crime (literally) (Will Catlett) and a rapidly changing New York, especially in her home neighborhood of Harlem. Despite a somewhat slow and unfocused start, the story deepens as this unlikely new family seeks to get on its feet. However, the somewhat-disjointed opening act sets the tone for the overall narrative, which gets away from its basic premise and starts meandering in engaging but largely unrelated territory, an issue that hampers the focus of this story until near the end. These shortcomings are defrayed to a degree by its fine performances, most notably Taylor and the gifted actors playing her son at ages 13 and 17 (Aven Courtney and Josiah Cross, respectively), but these portrayals aren’t quite enough to overcome the inherent drawbacks in the direction of the script. With that said, though, the filmmaker nevertheless shows promise in telling moving tales, so here’s hoping this start lead to better efforts in her future endeavors.
MartyCrooner2024-01-23
★ 7/10
A story about a mother-son relationship and how it changes over the course of a decade. With a background setting of New York in the 90s and 00s, the movie depicts how issues like poverty, crime, race, and gentrification interact. Well acted with beautiful characters. Except the kid can be a little too sniveling at times. I mean, I get that there's childhood trauma and abandonment issues, but geeeeez.