TIFF 2025: Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband)

It’s not that common to see myth on the big screen these days, outside of the superhero genre’s forays into myth. Rarity is especially the case for Inuit myth going back thousands of years. Yet Zacharias Kunuk is no stranger to myth on film. His first film, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001), which is considered one of the best Canadian films ever made, is based on an ancient legend about domestic conflict passed down orally in Inuit society. But Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) is his first film that embraces the fantasy of myth, whether Greek, Jewish, Indian, or Inuit: of epic quests, magic powers, and fated resolutions.

Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) has a classical set-up: a boy, Sapa (Haiden Anguitmarik), and girl, Kaujak (Theresia Kappianaq), are promised to each other from birth. But when Sapa is out hunting, Kaujak is taken away by a stranger and given to a different boy as wife. Sapa sets on a quest to get her back. The film is a star-crossed romance set in the beautiful, icy northern reaches of the Arctic thousands of years ago. We first watch Sapa and Kaujak as children and then quickly jump forward to them as young adults (played by Anguitmarik and Kappianaq), learning the traditions of their small community, but also bonding. It’s important to note that the film never even hints that there’s anything wrong with Sapa and Kaujak’s arranged marriage; the film approaches the past on its own terms and accepts the story convention that they are star-crossed lovers. They’re tender with each other, playful, but respectful, never crossing into an intimate familiarity that will come once they are properly married. Both Haiden Anguitmarik and Theresia Kappianaq are likable in the roles, admirable, even plucky. They don’t have the gravitas of more seasoned actors. However, they are comfortable on screen and, most importantly, with each other. Their performances do a lot to invest us in their romance, even if the film’s ending is preordained.

But the classic mythic elements of Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) don’t end there; there are also magical spells, spiritual battles in dreamscapes, and even a pesky troll that haunts the small settlements in this part of the Arctic. Unlike Atanarjuat, which is based on myth, but never has any overtly fantastical elements in its filmmaking, Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) utilizes special effects and elaborate costumes to showcase these magical elements on screen. The tone doesn’t always land when doing so, largely due to the low budget. I could imagine some bewildered audience members finding the spiritual battles corny, for instance, as two elder men do combat on a spiritual battlefield under a bloodred sky as their bodies both sleep in their tents. Characters hurl magical spells at each other and spirits appear in bursts of smoke. The troll creeps in the background, threatening to pull children into the dark waters of the North Sea. Stop motion animation from Ray Harryhausen wouldn’t be out of place here—and therein lies the film’s charm. Like Jason and the Argonauts (1961) or Clash of the Titans (1981), the film is not trying to look slick or cool in its presentation of magic, with the creakiness of the presentation lending an uncanniness that actually makes it more compelling as legend.

That said, just because it’s charming doesn’t mean it’s always successful; sometimes the sight of an old woman appearing out of smoke is just silly. (I do wish Kunuk had the budget of a Marvel picture to see what he could conjure in the great far north.) The irony is that the presentation in Atarnajuat is more successful because the Arctic landscape seems magical in itself, especially to non-Inuit viewers who don’t dwell in the North. The same is true of the landscape cinematography in Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband). Most scenes are gorgeous, framed against the flat, icy landscape and the cool waters of the ocean, the sun perpetually at the Golden Hour angle, bathing the characters in soft, flattering light. There are cinematographers that would kill for this kind of natural light.

Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) also functions as history and record in addition to narrative and cinema. Kunuk’s project has never been just about the cinema, although he’s a remarkably confident cinematic storyteller. His films are also visual presentations of oral stories and traditions that might not survive the coming generations. Thus, his work becomes preservation as well as entertainment. In Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband), the story is an ancient myth, but the film also casually shows old practices, such as a ball game that the youth play at one point, or the act of mending a broken boot, that might be foreign to a young person growing up in Iqaluit today.

The success of Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) becomes twofold. It’s a classic narrative straight out of myth, with all its old-fashioned (and occasionally silly) romance and adventure, as well as a record of a way of life threatened by a warming planet and a changing culture.

7 out of 10

Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) (2025, Canada)

Directed by Zacharias Kunuk; written by Zacharias Kunuk and Sam Cohn-Cousineau; starring Haiden Anguitmarik, Theresia Kappianaq, Leah Panimera, Emma Quassa, Mark Taqqaugaq.

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