#FIRSTLOOK: “UIKSARINGITARA” PREMIERES AT 75TH BERIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband), the latest feature film by award-winning Canadian Inuit director, Zacharias Kunuk, starring newcomers Theresia Kappianaq, Haiden Angutimarik, and Dion Amarualik, along with Leah Panimera and Mark Taggaugaq, will have its world premiere at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on February 16, 2025 it’s main premiere venue, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, at 4pm CET.

Best known for his 2001 feature film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, winner of the 2001 Camera d’Or and voted Canada’s Best Film of All Time by the TIFF Film Critic Poll in 2015, Kunuk is considered one of the pioneers of Indigenous cinema, having directed five feature films and over 40 documentaries all in Inuktitut.

Filmed on location in Nunavut during the 24hr daylight of the arctic tundra, the film combines meticulous attention to detail with a meditative cinema-verité observational style and applies it to creating immersive historical drama that transport audiences into a world that they have never seen before.

Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) is co-written by Kunuk along with Carol Kunnuk (Tautuktavuk: What We See, Mother) and Samuel Cohn-Cousineau (Tautuktavuk: What We See, Tia and Piujuq), and produced by Carol Kunnuk, Jonathan Frantz (Tautuktavuk: What We See, The Shaman’s Apprentice, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk) and Cohn-Cousineau, with Susan Avingaq (Tautuktavuk: What We See, Tia and Piujuq, Uvanga)and Zacharias Kunuk serving as executive producers and Cecilia Greyson (Tautuktavuk: What We See) as Associate Producer.

The film is being distributed in Canada by Isuma Distribution International and will be broadcast by Uvagut TV.

Cinematography by Jonathan Frantz and Thomas Leblanc-Murray (Festin Boréal, Me Without You), costume design and by Susan Avingaq, production design by Avingaq and Melanie McNicoll (Uvanga) and editing by Kunuk, Frantz and Raphael Sandler (Sam & Jean).

Igloolik. 2000 BCE. In a world dictated by supernatural forces, teenage lovers Sapa (Haiden Angutimarik) and Kaujak (Theresia Kappianaq) have known since they were toddlers’ that they will be married – their parents having arranged it at birth. When Kaujak’s father mysteriously dies, her mother, Nujatut (Leah Panimera) marries a strange man from another camp (Mark Taqqaugaq), tearing the two apart. The promise of a better life quickly turns to a nightmare, with aggressive suitors, particularly Angusiaq (Dion Amarualik) backed by powerful shamanic forces vying for Kaujak. With the help of Sapa’s grandmother Ulluriaq (Emma Quassa), the lovers must use supernatural powers to take matters into their own hands and reunite once and for all.

“We are honored to have our film make its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. This film was a real community effort and would not have been possible without the advice and support of our elders. I am also especially proud of all the young people and first-time actors who worked on the film, like our two leads actors Theresia Kappianaq and Haiden Angutimarik. Inuit have thousands of years of oral tradition across the north, we have so many spiritual stories, love stories, scary stories, fantastic creatures, and spirit helpers. My hope is that Wrong Husband inspires a new generation of storytellers in Nunavut to make films of their own; and for our culture thereby to enhance the lives of audiences at home and everywhere,” said Zacharias Kunuk.

Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) was produced with the participation of Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada, the Indigenous Screen Office, with the assistance of the Government of Nunavut and the Nunavut Film Development Corporation, and broadcaster support from Uvagut TV.

ABOUT ZACHARIAS KUNUK
Zacharias Kunuk is the co-founder Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc. In addition to his feature Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001 Cannes Camera d’Or, “Best Canadian Film of all-time” TIFF Film Critic Poll), Kunuk has directed more than 30 documentaries and feature films including The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, Maliglutit (Searchers), and the Oscar-shortlisted animation film Angakusajaujuq (The Shaman’s Apprentice). His 2019 film One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk premiered as the main art piece of the Canadian Pavilion at the 58th Biennale di Venezia, where Kunuk and the Isuma Collective were Canada’s representative artists. In 2003, he founded the distribution company Isuma Distribution International, to allow Inuit audiences better access to Inuktitut film and video and in 2008, the website www.isuma.tv. In 2015, he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2019, an Officer of the Order of Nunavut.