As the world crumbles around them, a couple goes on a time-traveling vacation in the sci-fi drama Future Tense, playing Fantastic Fest 2026.
Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone, even seventy years on is still echoes through storytelling no matter the medium or even country. Some filmmakers learn the wrong lessons, and others learn the right from the writer/producer’s genre-defining series. Count writer/director Jenna Cato Bass as on the right side of the lessons taught by Serling’s series. Her feature Future Tense finds time travel as a great mechanism for a story of a dystopian future.
As the world crumbles and cities begin to be evacuated as conditions become unlivable, the rich remain rich, and the privileged remain privileged. A newly minted couple, Lwando and Tara (Lawrence Maleka and Kristen Raath), are planning a trip that Lwando just won. This trip is unlike any you have been on. Not a place but a where… 1652, to be exact. The couple is allowed one night in the unsullied earth of five hundred years prior. As Lwando and Tara are given a reprieve from the oppressive earth of 2035, it becomes apparent that one has ulterior motives. Motives that could change the fabric of time.
As we venture further into Lwando and Tara’s relationship and their journey to the ultimate goal, the film finds ways to have the critical arguments about time travel, race, and colonization that never feel tired. Even as the film loops into itself, as many of the great time travel films do, it never feels standard issue or clichéd as the relationship (not the plot) remains at the center of the film. Bass’s film, beyond the layered story, is a visual stunner. Effectively using the various locations in and around South Africa, with the beautiful and stark cinematography by Jared Paisley and smart VFX for maximum impact.
Future Tense is an adroitly written and executed science fiction drama that, like the very best of high-concept films, takes its premise and pushes it further into interesting and surprising territories.
Future Tense plays at Fantastic Fest 2026
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As the world crumbles around them, a couple goes on a time-traveling vacation in the sci-fi drama Future Tense, playing Fantastic Fest 2026.
Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone, even seventy years on is still echoes through storytelling no matter the medium or even country. Some filmmakers learn the wrong lessons, and others learn the right from the writer/producer’s genre-defining series. Count writer/director Jenna Cato Bass as on the right side of the lessons taught by Serling’s series. Her feature Future Tense finds time travel as a great mechanism for a story of a dystopian future.
As the world crumbles and cities begin to be evacuated as conditions become unlivable, the rich remain rich, and the privileged remain privileged. A newly minted couple, Lwando and Tara (Lawrence Maleka and Kristen Raath), are planning a trip that Lwando just won. This trip is unlike any you have been on. Not a place but a where… 1652, to be exact. The couple is allowed one night in the unsullied earth of five hundred years prior. As Lwando and Tara are given a reprieve from the oppressive earth of 2035, it becomes apparent that one has ulterior motives. Motives that could change the fabric of time.
As we venture further into Lwando and Tara’s relationship and their journey to the ultimate goal, the film finds ways to have the critical arguments about time travel, race, and colonization that never feel tired. Even as the film loops into itself, as many of the great time travel films do, it never feels standard issue or clichéd as the relationship (not the plot) remains at the center of the film. Bass’s film, beyond the layered story, is a visual stunner. Effectively using the various locations in and around South Africa, with the beautiful and stark cinematography by Jared Paisley and smart VFX for maximum impact.
Future Tense is an adroitly written and executed science fiction drama that, like the very best of high-concept films, takes its premise and pushes it further into interesting and surprising territories.
Future Tense plays at Fantastic Fest 2026
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