diff --git a/git/compat.py b/git/compat.py
index b63768f3d..02dc69de8 100644
--- a/git/compat.py
+++ b/git/compat.py
@@ -30,7 +30,10 @@
 is_win = (os.name == 'nt')
 is_posix = (os.name == 'posix')
 is_darwin = (os.name == 'darwin')
-defenc = sys.getdefaultencoding()
+if hasattr(sys, 'getfilesystemencoding'):
+    defenc = sys.getfilesystemencoding()
+if defenc is None:
+    defenc = sys.getdefaultencoding()
 
 if PY3:
     import io
diff --git a/git/repo/base.py b/git/repo/base.py
index 58f11e51e..993e091d0 100644
--- a/git/repo/base.py
+++ b/git/repo/base.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 # This module is part of GitPython and is released under
 # the BSD License: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php
 
+from builtins import str
 from collections import namedtuple
 import logging
 import os
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 396446062..d07518bbd 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
 gitdb>=0.6.4
 ddt>=1.1.1
+future>=0.9