Miles Morrisseau
ICT
Acclaimed Inuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk took home the award for Best Canadian Feature Film at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival for his film, “Uiksaringitara: Wrong Husband.”
Kunuk — whose work has primarily been in the Inuktitut language — also received a Special Tribute Award at this year’s festival for his contribution to film, along with other honorees such as Jodie Foster, Idris Alba, Catherine O’Hara and Guillermo Del Toro.
In his acceptance for the Special Tribute, Kunuk recalled how he didn’t have any idea what he was getting into when he began making movies.
“When I first started making film, I didn’t really know what I was getting into. When I first directed drama, my actors would improvise their own lines,” Kunuk said. “From there, getting a bigger project, I think we needed a script to show to our funding agencies what we’re after. So I would have an English script and an Inuktitut script that I’m going to follow when I’m directing, so that’s how I work.”
The Oscar buzz has already started about whether “Uiksaringitara: Wrong Husband” will get a Canadian nomination for the foreign language film category and whether it would catch attention among Academy Award voters.
The film is described as an “Arctic fairy tale set in an Inuit community,” and tells the story of two young people who are separated after being promised to each other at birth. Kunuk, who directed the film, is also co-writer with Samuel Cohn-Couisineau.
The film stars Haiden Agnutimarik, who plays Sapa, the “right” husband; Theresia Kappianaq, who plays the female lead, Kaujak; and Devon Dion Amarualik, who plays Angusiaq, the “wrong husband.” All three are working in film as actors for the first time. It also stars Leah Panimera as Nujatut, Kaujak’s mother. Panimera is an experienced actress who had the lead role in Kunuk’s 2006 film, “The Journals of Knud Rasmussen.”
The film is being distributed in Canada by Isuma Distribution International.
Telling the stories
Kunuk’s work has been primarily in his Indigenous language of Inuktitut ever since his first feature, “Atanarjuat: Fast Runner,” which also took home the award for best Canadian feature at the 2001 TIFF.
It was the first feature film ever written, acted and directed in the Inuktitut language, and it won the Camera d’Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival and was named Best Picture in Canada, among a string of other awards. In 2015, the Toronto International Film Festival named it the best Canadian film ever made.
Kunuk credits his mother telling stories to him and his siblings while they were out on the land.
“These stories I have heard from my mother when she’s trying to put us to sleep, when I was on the land, because I was born on the land, she talked about this story about a naked man running around the ice, and I never forgot it,” Kunuk said, recalling the inspiration for “Fast Runner.” “That’s what we do, tell our story because a lot of culture is different, but it’s all the same in some ways. When my actor says in Inuktitut, ‘My brother is a jerk,’ that’s common. Everybody in the world knows that.”
He thanked the crew that he worked with and his mentor Norman Cohn, “who brought me here today, that told me, ‘Believe in yourself, what you can do.’”
The filmmaker believes this is an exacting time to be a filmmaker, with technology given artists the tools to tell more stories.
“More and more, with technology changing, everything is possible,” Kunuk said. “When I first started out, when I made the film, “The Journals of Knud Rasmussen,” I wanted to have helping spirits that I wanted to show, but … they looked like normal people just walking around with us. But in this new movie, new film, we’re using special effects.”
Looking ahead
Kunuk says that it was challenging coming from his isolated northern life to becoming a part of the international film industry.
“It was really hard at first, when I used to come down here, because I’m way up there in the Arctic,” he said. “I come down here and I go to receptions like this, can’t make a word. And I’m a hunter, I go hunting. It’s like running into a herd of walrus, you can’t make a sound. You just hear mumbling sounds.”
Throughout his career, one thing has remained constant,. Kunuk has depended on counsel from his elders whenever taking on a project.
“Over the years, elders have helped me when I wanted to make this wrong husband story,” he said, reflecting on the process. “I sat down with the elders … for a week to hash out all the things I need to know before I really start filming. That’s how I always do that. I talk to my elders … If it’s not, all right, we won’t do it.”
He continues to remain focused on the stories of his own people. It is where he finds his greatest inspiration.
“I’ve been fascinated by my culture,” he said. “When I lay down to sleep inside the igloo, counting the blocks in spiral thinking, whoever figured this out must have been a genius, that’s what I’m thinking.
“Who could hitch wild dogs onto a sled, harness them, command them with the whip? Go, stop, go, right, turn left. That is genius to me, building the kayak that glides on the sea like a sled. Wow. Who could ever think of that? That’s what I think about my culture.”
Kunuk has 21 directing credits including television, documentaries and film. “Uiksaringitara: Wrong Husband” is his sixth feature film and had its world premiere at the 75th annual Berlin Film Festival.