A Thousand and One is often a difficult film to watch. So many scenes carry so much weight, and dread with them, like the characters are constantly on edge – just waiting for the other shoe to finally drop. There are also some truly gut-wrenching scenes, especially towards the end, that really affected me. I didn’t grow up in a broken, and dysfunctional home like this, but I know those that have, and the depictions here felt very real. There are some powerful performances in the film, but none more than Teyana Taylor, who plays Inez, the mother of the story. She was incredible in the role.

Inez is very far from perfect. Being raised in a broken home herself led to her going down the wrong path when she was younger. But she is trying. She struggles to rise above poverty, and escape that criminal past. Yet, she still has to deal with landlords trying to squeeze her out, police harassment, and trying to keep her kid away from the streets, and more. It’s hard not to feel like the deck is stacked against these characters, and so many others like them in real life.

The movie is set in 1990’s New York City. As someone that grew up in the city during that time, I was impressed by how faithful that era was captured here. From the somewhat shabbier look of the city, and streets, to the music, cars, even the different candy wrapping of that time. Just excellent attention to detail there, which helped transport me right back to that time.

Beyond the story of mother and son in the film, it is set against a backdrop of the changing socio-political landscape of NYC during that time. From hearing radio, and TV ads with newly-elected Giuliani wanting to clean up Times Square, and enact stricter laws, to showing local retail stores closing down, and being replaced with major retail chains, we can see how these external transformations are having an impact on the characters of this film. Of these topics, gentrification in my neighborhood, and dealing with slumlords were some of topics that really hit close to home for me personally., and it’s something this city is still dealing with today.

At one point in the movie, when asked about love, Inez says to another character “Damaged people don’t know how to love each other”. I don’t believe that to be true, but it’s heartbreaking that she believes it. She, like so many other single-mothers out there (including my own), sacrificed everything for their children, trying to give them a better life than they had themselves. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is. A Thousand and One is an emotional powerhouse of a film, and I highly recommend seeking it out.