A Thousand and One

In 1994, hairdresser and convicted thief Inez de la Paz is released from Rikers Island and returns to Harlem, where she sees her son Terry with other children from his foster home. When Terry is hospitalized after trying to escape from the home, Inez visits him. He tells her about his earliest memory: of Inez abandoning him on a street corner when he was two years old. Visibly shaken, Inez asks if Terry wants to come live with her. When he says yes, Inez abducts him from the hospital.

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. 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.

In 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.

In 2005, Lucky is dying of cancer while 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 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."

• 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

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]

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]

• Official website
• A Thousand and One at IMDb 
• A Thousand and One at Box Office Mojo
• A Thousand and One at Rotten Tomatoes