A visually stunning Arctic fairy tale by Zacharias Kunuk, the pioneer of Indigenous cinema.
Igloolik, Nunavut, 2000 BCE. Kaujak and Sapa were promised to each other at birth. After the sudden death of Kaujak’s father, her mother marries a man from another camp, tearing the two apart. Kaujak’s life turns into a nightmare, with aggressive suitors backed by an evil shaman.
Zacharias Kunuk came on the scene with his debut feature Atanarjuat – The Fast Runner, which bagged him the Camera D’Or at the 2001 Cannes film Festival. The film became a worldwide success and paved the way for more Indigenous cinema. Atanarjuat was the first Canadian film shot entirely in Inuktitut, the language of the Canaduan Inuit. Kunuk’s new film follows in its footsteps. Based on old Inuit legends, Wrong Husband’s mystical and pre-colonial world is full of shamans, trolls and caribou- and wolf spirits. It’s filmmaking as a reclamation, a look at history from the inside, talking back to the colonial forces.
