Four stars
Speculative Fiction has been predicting the future for several centuries now. This is to the extent that much of the hi-tech machine age prophecy highlighted on the page and on screens great and small as they were invented is now science fact.
So it goes with the six short films produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and BBC Scotland currently on a short tour of cinemas prior to a digital release in January 2027. Developed as part of the NTS’ 20th anniversary, each commission pairs already accomplished stage writers and directors with equally skilled film makers.
Bed to the Future finds a male couple embark on purchasing a new bed to rest their weary heads, only for one of them to be lurched forward in time. Written and directed by James Ley, the narrative sees Martin Quinn and Jay Newton as the couple find comfort away from the future shock witnessed.
Broth finds Carmen Pieraccini’s TV news reporter on a cliff edge both personally and professionally in Lesley Hart’s script, which has shades of film classic Network in its depiction of a small screen meltdown. Sally Reid's production also features Ryan J Mackay as the camera man who brings her back down to earth.
Un-Static sees James Dawoud play a young man holed up in a caravan exploring the mess of his cultural identity. Natali McCleary’s script for Josefa Celestin's production has him seek advice from Maureen Carr's unicorn. Scotland’s national animal, alas, is part of the myth.
Smoke is a near Beckettian monologue by Kieran Hurley delivered offscreen by Shirley Manson with an urgency that matches the environmental concerns of the words, while dancer Nicolette McCormack moves among the seats of an empty theatre. Director Rianne White brings all her experience making music videos to bear in the film’s heady fusion of sound and vision.
Director Stewart Laing takes a busy Nouvelle Vague camera style to Uma Nada-Rajah’s script in Optimum. In what initially looks like a common or garden first date, as AI declares the couple played by Anna Russell Martin and Ross Mann the perfect match, the stakes become increasingly higher.
Finally, Still Alive sees Keith Fleming’s ageing high flyer put into a new body half his age by Nadia Albina’s overworked agency employee in writer/director Hope Dickson Leach’s film. Eternal youth, alas, comes with its own problems.
Clocking in at just over an hour all in, the end result is a trip to the twilight zone for an anthology of bite size Black Mirroresque tales of the unexpected. The future, it seems, like the truth, is still out there.
The Herald, October 3rd 2026
ends
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