diff -r ae51329f9893 Lib/test/test_imp.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_imp.py	Wed Aug 22 14:40:35 2012 +0200
+++ b/Lib/test/test_imp.py	Wed Aug 22 17:38:09 2012 +0200
@@ -197,6 +197,18 @@ class ImportTests(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertIn(path, err.exception.path)
         self.assertEqual(name, err.exception.name)
 
+    @unittest.skipUnless(support.TESTFN_UNENCODABLE is not None,
+                         'requires an unencodable filename')
+    def test_load_dynamic_nonascii(self):
+        # Check that the right encodings are used to decode arguments
+        # of the exception
+        path = support.TESTFN_UNENCODABLE
+        name = 'extension'
+        with self.assertRaises(ImportError) as err:
+            imp.load_dynamic(name, path_bytes)
+        self.assertEqual(name, err.exception.name)
+        #self.assertEqual(path, err.exception.path)
+
 
 class ReloadTests(unittest.TestCase):
 
diff -r ae51329f9893 Python/dynload_shlib.c
--- a/Python/dynload_shlib.c	Wed Aug 22 14:40:35 2012 +0200
+++ b/Python/dynload_shlib.c	Wed Aug 22 17:38:09 2012 +0200
@@ -135,13 +135,13 @@ dl_funcptr _PyImport_GetDynLoadFunc(cons
         const char *error = dlerror();
         if (error == NULL)
             error = "unknown dlopen() error";
-        error_ob = PyUnicode_FromString(error);
-        path = PyUnicode_FromString(pathname);
+        error_ob = PyUnicode_DecodeLocale(error, "surrogateescape");
+        path = PyUnicode_DecodeFSDefault(pathname);
         mod_name = PyUnicode_FromString(shortname);
         PyErr_SetImportError(error_ob, mod_name, path);
-        Py_DECREF(error_ob);
-        Py_DECREF(path);
-        Py_DECREF(mod_name);
+        Py_XDECREF(error_ob);
+        Py_XDECREF(path);
+        Py_XDECREF(mod_name);
         return NULL;
     }
     if (fp != NULL && nhandles < 128)