Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

Photos by Jeff Harris.

It’s 400 years ago in the north. Kaujak and Sapa have known one another since they were babies and they were promised to one another. But when kaujak’s father dies suddenly — at the sometime as a stranger, Sapa leaves for a hunting trip. While he is gone, a man with no wife who is a figure of fun, arrives by Kayak. He takes her and her daughter Kajuak away. In the new area people are not kind and life is bad. But Kaujak continues to fight back. And always lurking in the background is a terrible beast, a giant troll who takes people away.

Will the proposed young couple ever see each each there again? Or will Kaujak be forced to marry the wrong husband?

The Wrong Husband is a new film from Nunavut that interprets ancient stories and the oral tradition with traditional ways of life. It combines the supernatural; with religion to make a moving emotional Romeo and Juliet story. The story is told in Inuktitut with an Indigenous cast. The film is directed and co-written by award-winning Inuit director Zacharias Kunuk. His feature Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner won the Camera d’Or at Cannes and countless Canadian prizes, and was a critical and commercial success. Other notable films include  The Journals of Knud Rasmussen and Maliglutit or Searchers. The Wrong Husband had its Canadian Premier at the Toronto International Film Festival.

I spoke with Zacharias Kunuk on site during TIFF50 at the Royal York Hotel.

The Wrong Husband is opening in Canada on Nov 28, 2025. 

Winner: Best Canadian Feature Film Award, TIFF ’25.