diff --git a/state.py b/state.py
index e38cf29..84eecf7 100644
--- a/state.py
+++ b/state.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ def _connect(dbfile):
     _db = sqlite3.connect(dbfile, timeout=TIMEOUT)
     _db.execute("pragma synchronous = off")
     _db.execute("pragma journal_mode = PERSIST")
+    _db.text_factory = str
     return _db
 
 
diff --git a/t/test-uniçøðë/test1.do b/t/test-uniçøðë/test1.do
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/t/test.do b/t/test.do
index 65538e3..41c0acc 100644
--- a/t/test.do
+++ b/t/test.do
@@ -3,4 +3,5 @@ redo-ifchange all
 redo nonshelltest shelltest \
 	deltest deltest2 test.args test2.args passfailtest chdirtest \
 	curse/test deps/test "space dir/test" modetest makedir2 \
-	silencetest touchtest stamp/test alwaystest ifcreate-test
+	silencetest touchtest stamp/test alwaystest ifcreate-test \
+	unicode
diff --git a/t/unicode.do b/t/unicode.do
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..309ed02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/unicode.do
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# Test that redo can handle a script whose path contains non-ASCII characters.
+redo test-uniçøðë/test1