Synopsis
Igloolik, Nunavut, 2000 BCE. Kaujak (Theresia Kappianaq) and Sapa (Haiden Angutimarik) 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 young lovers apart. The promise of a better life quickly turns to a nightmare, with aggressive suitors backed by an evil shaman vying to win Kaujak’s hand. But Kaujak resists, holding on to hope that Sapa will one day make things right.
Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) is the latest feature film by award-winning Canadian Inuit director Zacharias Kunuk, starring Theresia Kappianaq, Haiden Angutimarik, Leah Panimera, Mark Taqqaugaq, and Dion Amarualik, many of whom are newcomers to the screen.
Inspired by traditional Inuit stories and legends, Uiksaringitara: Wrong Husband is set in 2000 BCE, when Inuit lived semi-nomadically in small groups, moving to follow the seasons and animals. Society was guided by Shamanism, a complex spiritual system of taboos where each object or life form has a spirit that must be respected, and the lines between the “real” world and the “spirit” world blurred.
“Inuit have thousands of years of oral tradition across the north, exchanging songs and games and legends from Russia to Greenland. We have so many spiritual stories, love stories, scary stories, fantastic creatures, and spirit helpers. I want to bring Inuit sensibility to the forefront so people across the world can see what guided us before colonization.”
A film by Zacharias Kunuk
- Featuring
- Theresia Kappianaq, Haiden Angutimarik
- With
- Leah Panimera, Mark Taqqaugaq, Deon Amarualik, Emma Quassa, Karen Ivalu
- Producers
- Jonathan Frantz, Samuel Cohn-Cousineau
- Executive Producers
- Zacharias Kunuk, Susan Avingaq
- Writers
- Zacharias Kunuk, Samuel Cohn-Cousineau
- Artistic Direction
- Susan Avingaq
- Director of Photography
- Jonathan Frantz, Thomas LeBlanc Murray
- Editor
- Raphaël Sandler
- Music By
- PIQSIQ