TIFF 2026 Review: Future Tense – “The premise feels unique, even if time travel in films is not.”

Courtesy of TIFF

Imagine if you could travel back in time on vacation.  Where and when would you choose?  In the not-so-distant future, this is a reality in Jenna Cato Bass‘ newest film, Future Tense.

“Welcome to your time away from time,” Lwando (Lawrence Maleka) and his girlfriend Tara (Kristen Raath) hear as they prepare to leave the Cape Town chronological departure terminal.  They buckle in for their inter-chronological travel (with aeroplane seat buckles no less – those haven’t gotten an update), destination year 1647.  Though it doesn’t look like the old days when they get there, a modern building with all the amenities awaits.  Yet, it stands in the middle of unspoilt nature, a stark difference from the polluted world from which they departed.

As Tara stands outside and feels the clean air fill her lungs Lwando stays put, acutely aware of the soldiers along the perimeter meant to keep them contained.  Presumably, to prevent them from changing history.  But, that’s Lwando’s exact plan.  As an underground activist, he wants to change the past, to change the future.  A few days from now, a Dutch ship is about to encounter a village on the African shore, beginning colonization of the continent.

Tara’s plan for this trip was just to work on and save their relationship, and now the two are avoiding soldiers and surveillance drones in order to make Lwando’s plan come to fruition.  Yes, there will be other Europeans that follow, but imagine if the African people are armed with the knowledge of what could happen, if only a couple decades of development prevent centuries of suffering both to the people and the land.

Future Tense starts out so incredibly promising.  The premise feels unique, even if time travel in films is not.  There are some jumps back and forth that reveal more of the backstory of Tara and Lwando, but this character development feels fairly natural and needed and is easy to follow.  The hard part with Future Tense is the last twenty minutes or so.  And don’t worry, I can’t really spoil it for you because I’m still unclear as to what happened myself (and I wasn’t the only one in the screening who left a bit baffled).

While I found Maleka and Raath good together, their relationship was written a bit strangely.  Also the fact they are a mixed-race couple does have ramifications for how they each see the end of their journey playing out, but that interesting dichotomy is only briefly touched upon.  The production value and the scope of the film are well executed, and I was locked in over that first hour only to eventually feel let down.  Time travel films can get confusing, what with that butterfly effect and all, but Future Tense just eventually unravels, becoming incoherent and leaving the audience with more questions than answers.

Future Tense had its world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival on Monday, September 14th.  For more information head to tiff.net