Time travel seems to be a frequent topic in cinema these days. In most of those movies the plot is then heavily driven by the usual causality conflicts, and alternate or multiple timelines or realities that the time travel creates. But that is not at all what this movie is about.

Maggie has travelled from the year 2054 back to today, and is emerging as a cult leader with a handful of followers. The viewer follows a couple, Peter and Lorna, who infiltrate the cult in the name of investigative journalism. Peter is driven by his strong scepticism and wants to expose Maggie, but after a few visits to the cult, Lorna is beginning to feel that Maggie’s charms are working on Peter. So when Maggie asks/orders Peter to bring her a little girl, what will he do?

The movie is carried by Brit Marling as Maggie. She effortlessly moves between commanding a natural naive empathy and exerting an inescapably manipulative authority in a single scene.

Unfortunately, the plot leaves too many open questions. It almost feels like a pilot episode of a TV series, raising a bunch of questions that may or may not get answered in the season of episodes to follow. But as a standalone movie it feels just a bit too thin – like Marling’s other movies Another Earth, I Origins and The East.

But it is worth watching for Brit Marling’s impressive acting alone.