diff --git a/Lib/test/test_urllib.py b/Lib/test/test_urllib.py
index 94f0f9e..4579c47 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_urllib.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_urllib.py
@@ -415,6 +415,10 @@
         self.assertEqual(expect, result,
                          "using unquote_plus(): %s != %s" % (expect, result))
 
+    def test_unquote_with_unicode(self):
+        r = urllib.unquote(u'br%C3%BCckner_sapporo_20050930.doc')
+        self.assertEqual(r, u'br\xc3\xbcckner_sapporo_20050930.doc')
+
 class urlencode_Tests(unittest.TestCase):
     """Tests for urlencode()"""
 
diff --git a/Lib/urllib.py b/Lib/urllib.py
index bc16be0..f00d02f 100644
--- a/Lib/urllib.py
+++ b/Lib/urllib.py
@@ -1061,6 +1061,8 @@
             res[i] = _hextochr[item[:2]] + item[2:]
         except KeyError:
             res[i] = '%' + item
+        except UnicodeDecodeError:
+            res[i] = unichr(int(item[:2], 16)) + item[2:]
     return "".join(res)
 
 def unquote_plus(s):