'A Thousand and One' is a career-defining performance for Teyana Taylor

Inez (Teyana Taylor) rescues her son Terry (Aaron Kingsley Adetola, Aven Courtney, Josiah Cross) from foster and sets out to form a life with him and her partner, Lucky (Will Catlett). Through the years, New York and Harlem rapidly changes and so too does the dynamic between Inez, Terry and Lucky...

James Joyce famously said that in the particular is contained the universal. For 'A Thousand And One', it's a deeply personal story set inside a unique location and set during a time that now seems a thousand years ago - the '90s. AV Rockwell's directorial debut is made up of clearly defined markers of the time - there's stone-washed denim everywhere, people carry beepers and use payphones, and New York itself is somehow smaller and personal. Yet, as the family story progresses, we see New York shift and change until it becomes unrecognisable. The closing moments of the movie see Teyana Taylor and her now adult-son embracing on a street corner, surrounded by 'For Sale' signs and the impending gentrification. As particular as this is, Dubliners and Irish people know what it is to live in a city that is driving out its people in favour of corporate interests and grasping landlordism.

Teyana Taylor is the core of 'A Thousand and One', and through her, we're brought through both the story and themes. Her resilience and her tenacity often alienates her from those around her, and as the years wear on, we see that the constant struggle in her daily life eventually wears her down. Likewise, the relationship she has with her on-screen partner, played with emotional nuance by Will Catlett, is brought through evolving stages, from sharp passion to infidelities, and finally to a heartbreaking conclusion.

Taylor's performance as Inez is rich with finely wrought scenes of emotional complexities. She's sometimes a hard character to like and empathise with, as she fights so freely with those trying to help her, and that's not even getting into the final act of the story. It's completely captivating, but there are moments when her motivations and actions don't seem to make sense. The actors who play Terry at different stages in his life comport themselves well, with a real connection in performance between them.

It's not surprising to learn that AV Rockwell's artistic influences include European cinema, as 'A Thousand and One' has a flavour of Agnes Varda to it. There's a real sense of time and place, not to mention clever use of set design and costumes to reinforce these. More than that, Rockwell's skill with maintaining a strong sense of clarity in the characters she's written and directed points to the emergence of a talent that's bound to go far, and will probably be talked about again come awards season in 2024. 'A Thousand and One' might appear as a hard-to-watch drama and misery-leaden, but there are moments of real beauty and simple connection that make this one of the strongest debuts this year.