A Thousand and One (Rockwell, 2023)
Readers who scroll all the way to the bottom of these updates will know that I often add some links to extra material that I have posted elsewhere (usually the RNZ website).
Today, that “Further listening” heading goes at the top because my recommendation is a film that I reviewed on RNZ’s Nights programme last Friday.
A Thousand and One is a film that I first heard of when it won the Grand Jury Prize at last year’s Sundance festival but it dropped off my radar when it failed to get picked up by the New Zealand International Film Festival or a local cinema release.
Over the summer, I was checking in with a few ‘Best of the Year’ lists from reviewers I pay attention to and it showed up on a few of them. Then, shortly after that, it landed on Netflix in New Zealand.
The film is in the ‘gritty New York’ genre and is the story of a young mother named Inez (Teyana Taylor) who is trying to get her life back on the road after some trouble with the law. Step one is to get her son back from the foster care he has been placed in.
She basically abducts him and then forges identity papers as a way to stay one step ahead of the authorities. Inez is a fierce defender of her son, often to the detriment of them both, but her attempts to forge and then maintain the bond between them is a powerful story.
Taking place over a number of years from the mid-90s to the early 2000s (Terry, her son, is played by three different actors), the film is also a portrait of a changing New York as increasing gentrification makes it harder and harder for people on low incomes to maintain a toe-hold in Manhattan.
It’s not all doom and gloom, by any means, and first-time feature director A.V. Rockwell does a fantastic job of evoking time and place on what must have been a tiny indie budget. She’s definitely a name to keep a look out for.
You can hear the whole segment (including Perfect Days and The Prestige which were mentioned here last week) at the RNZ website.
Where to watch A Thousand and One
Aotearoa & Australia: Streaming on Netflix
USA: Streaming on Prime Video
UK: Streaming on NowTV (Sky)
