{"id":117459,"date":"2025-09-11T16:39:43","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T20:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=117459"},"modified":"2025-09-12T08:00:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T12:00:02","slug":"interview-tiff-2025-north-american-premiere-inuit-film-maker-zacharias-kunuk-talks-uiksaringitara-wrong-husband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/09\/11\/interview-tiff-2025-north-american-premiere-inuit-film-maker-zacharias-kunuk-talks-uiksaringitara-wrong-husband\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | TIFF 2025 North American Premiere: Inuit Film Maker Zacharias Kunuk Talks About Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband)"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_117462\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-117462\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-117462\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2025-09-11T163406.953.jpg\" alt=\"Actors Theresia Kappianaq and Haiden Angutimarik in Inuit film maker Zacharias Kunuk\u2019s Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) (Photo courtesy of TIFF)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2025-09-11T163406.953.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2025-09-11T163406.953-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2025-09-11T163406.953-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Copy-of-INTERVIEW-2025-09-11T163406.953-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-117462\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Actors Theresia Kappianaq and Haiden Angutimarik in Inuit film maker Zacharias Kunuk\u2019s Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) (Photo courtesy of TIFF)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Inuk film maker Zacharias Kunuk made a long awaited return to the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025 with a new work. His film Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) was screened for its North American premiere at the Festival.<\/p>\n<p>He returns to a far north setting to tell a story about young lovers separated in a world where the natural and the supernatural live side by side.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_117463\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-117463\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-117463\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Zach-Headshot-TIFF-2025.jpg\" alt=\"Inuit film maker Zacharias Kunuk (Photo courtesy of TIFF)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"793\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Zach-Headshot-TIFF-2025.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Zach-Headshot-TIFF-2025-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Zach-Headshot-TIFF-2025-1024x677.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/Zach-Headshot-TIFF-2025-768x508.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-117463\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inuit film maker Zacharias Kunuk (Photo courtesy of TIFF)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Zacharias Kunuk<\/h2>\n<p>Born in 1957 in a sod house at Kapuivik, an arctic island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of what is now Nunavut, film maker Zacharias Kunuk was sent to school in the town of Igloolik at the behest of the government. He and his brother were separated from their parents, who stayed on the land.<\/p>\n<p>He began to learn English, and devised a plan of making soapstone sculptures to sell in order to get into the movies that screened at the local Community Hall.<\/p>\n<p>For four millennia, the people of his region had used oral storytelling as their method of preserving history without a written language.<\/p>\n<p>Kunuk credits the experience of watching the Hollywood movies of his era, including the cowboys vs. Indians dramas common at the time, with insights he gleaned about how stories could be told from different sides.<\/p>\n<p>He came to realize that producing film and television locally in Nunavut would strengthen ties to Inuit culture in a society that was still healing from colonialism., and has become a pioneer of film making in the north.<\/p>\n<p>Today, he\u2019s perhaps best known outside of that region for his 2001 epic film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (Inuktitut: \u140a\u1455\u14c8\u1550\u152a\u140a\u1466), which was the very first feature that was written, directed and acted entirely in Inuktitut. It premiered at the 54th Cannes Film Festival, and went on to win the Cam\u00e9ra d&#8217;Or (Golden Camera), along with six Genie Awards back home in Canada. Fast Runner was the highest grossing Canadian film of 2002.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hSglkRPbvFU?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<h2>Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) a film by Zacharias Kunuk<\/h2>\n<p>In Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband), Kunuk weaves the supernatural and the mundane into a story with larger themes that could take place anywhere.<\/p>\n<p>Shot in Igloolik with a largely non-professional cast, the dialogue is in Inuktitut. It\u2019s set about 4,000 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>The landscape plays its own role in the story, a realm of snow and ice and grey rocks, of infinite variations in shades of white and grey and blue \u2014 a place where it\u2019s very easy to believe that magic and otherworldly elements hide around every corner. Cinematographers Jonathan Frantz and Thomas Leblanc-Murray nicely capture the multitude of qualities in the ever changing landscape from simply arresting and expansive to haunting and spooky.<\/p>\n<p>As the story opens, a troll hides in the shallow pools of water that open up when the ice surfaces begin to melt. He snatches up children from the nearby town when they stray too far away.<\/p>\n<p>As children, Kaujak (Theresia Kappianaq) and Sapa (Haiden Angutimarik) are promised to each other, and it\u2019s a promise they are both still eager to keep as they grow up. They are in love, and looking forward to a coming marriage.<\/p>\n<p>But, then tragedy strikes. Amaujak, the patriarch of Kaujak\u2019s once happy family, dies, and it leaves the fatherless clan vulnerable.<\/p>\n<p>A stranger comes to town not long after, and it so happens he\u2019s looking for a wife. By agreement with the remaining elders of the village, the newcomer Makpa (Mark Taqqaugaq) takes Kaujak and her mother, Nujatut (Leah Panimera), to another village at a moment\u2019s notice. Unhappily, Kaujak follows the new couple away from the place she calls home.<\/p>\n<p>At the new village, new suitors swarm around Kaujak.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re trying to marry me to the wrong husband!\u201d she cries.<\/p>\n<p>Two shamans are manipulating the story from the sidelines, and the death of Amaujak is more complicated than it first appears. The moon is revealed as the protector of children and abused women.<\/p>\n<p>And, the troll still lurks just beyond the houses of the small town. Traditional percussion and vocal music add to the atmosphere of the film, and evoke the magical elements in the story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSometimes, life reminds us that we are powerless.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The plight of unhappily married women is a strong theme that runs throughout the story. Will Sapa be able to free Kaujak from the wrong husband?<\/p>\n<h3>The Setting<\/h3>\n<p>Kunuk\u2019s previous work has been praised for its verit\u00e9 realism, and the new film is no different. He depicts the processes of treating animal carcasses and hides, so integral to Inuit culture, in detail.<\/p>\n<p>The technology possessed by the Inuit people includes the tools needed for refined sewing, elaborate clothing designs and intricate beading, eye protection from the snow and the sun, among many other things. It is a society of no waste, where animals are consumed in every way possible.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of years ago, the Inuit carved out an elaborate society in the midst of a frozen landscape.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_117464\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-117464\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-117464\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/WH-HQ-STILL-5.jpg\" alt=\"A scene from Inuit film maker Zacharias Kunuk\u2019s Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) (Photo courtesy of TIFF)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/WH-HQ-STILL-5.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/WH-HQ-STILL-5-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/WH-HQ-STILL-5-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/WH-HQ-STILL-5-768x384.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-117464\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scene from Inuit film maker Zacharias Kunuk\u2019s Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) (Photo courtesy of TIFF)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Zacharias Kunuk: The Interview<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI was looking for good stories,\u201d Kunuk begins.<\/p>\n<p>He relates that years ago, in the mid-1960s, he met a man who lived in Igloolik, and who had, as in the story, married a woman who had been promised to someone else.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI heard about this fight,\u201d he says. \u201cThe wrong husband lost, and he took her away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That became the kernel of the story that he developed for the film and set in an ancient time. Into it, he wove the mythological elements of Inuit tradition, like the troll. It came from a story that was told to him by his mother, a cautionary tale.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe never see the troll,\u201d he recalled. \u201cWe only hear about him.\u201d it didn\u2019t stop mothers from using the creature as a deterrent.<\/p>\n<p>When he wanted to add it to the film, Zacharias had to come up with an idea of how it would look. \u201cWhen I\u2019m trying to develop this monster, I talked to elders,\u201d Kunuk says. \u201cNot many people have seen them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>From that consultation came the idea of an ugly creature with a big nose. It\u2019s effective as a kind of semi-aquatic, menacing element in the film.<\/p>\n<p>Two shamans were also woven into the story. \u201cI heard about shamans before we got bulldozed by Christianity,\u201d he says. When he was separated from his parents, at school, he was forbidden from practicing traditional culture in any form. \u201cBut, we\u2019re bad people, we break all the rules,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s fun making this kind of film.\u201d He also enjoyed the special effects that were created to depict the magic that flows, particularly in the scene with the two shamans. \u201cI wanted that scene to be out of this world.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_117465\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-117465\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-117465\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/WH-HQ-STILL-2.jpg\" alt=\"A scene from Inuit film maker Zacharias Kunuk\u2019s Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) (Photo courtesy of TIFF)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/WH-HQ-STILL-2.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/WH-HQ-STILL-2-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/WH-HQ-STILL-2-1024x512.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/09\/WH-HQ-STILL-2-768x384.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-117465\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scene from Inuit film maker Zacharias Kunuk\u2019s Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) (Photo courtesy of TIFF)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>The Promise<\/h3>\n<p>The promise made by the two mothers in the beginning of the film was an important element to set up in the film.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this oral culture, you don\u2019t have a pencil and paper to make a contract,\u201d he says. An oral promise was a solid one. \u201cYou don\u2019t break promises.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The film illustrates other aspects of the culture, like the popularity of nicknames. One of the other townspeople is called a \u201cWifeless Buddy\u201d in a touch of Kunuk\u2019s characteristic humour, and Kaujuk calls her mother \u201cYounger Sister\u201d. That stems from another tradition, as Kunuk explains.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a system of inheriting names from relatives who\u2019ve passed. In the present, your living relatives call you by the older person\u2019s name, and relationship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo keep the name alive,\u201d he explains. \u201cMe, when I was growing up, my father called me \u201cMother\u201d,\u201d he says. He\u2019d been named after his maternal grandmother. \u201cI inherited five names.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a film that preserves an ancient and unique culture with universal themes about love and liberty, while not shying from its difficulties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this culture, it\u2019s a man\u2019s world, but women have a say in it,\u201d Zacharias says.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully, the film will soon find a streaming service so more people can enjoy this atmospheric story.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Are you looking to promote an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/advertising\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #0e101a\"><u>event<\/u><\/span><\/a>? Have a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/masthead\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>news tip<\/u><\/a>? Need to know the best\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/events\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>events<\/u><\/a>\u00a0happening this weekend? 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