diff --git a/IPython/core/interactiveshell.py b/IPython/core/interactiveshell.py
index 07acf5b..27d65a4 100644
--- a/IPython/core/interactiveshell.py
+++ b/IPython/core/interactiveshell.py
@@ -2257,8 +2257,12 @@ class InteractiveShell(SingletonConfigurable, Magic):
         exit_ignore : bool (False)
             If True, then silence SystemExit for non-zero status (it is always
             silenced for zero status, as it is so common).
+        raise_exceptions : bool (False)
+            If True raise exceptions everywhere. Meant for testing.
+
         """
         kw.setdefault('exit_ignore', False)
+        kw.setdefault('raise_exceptions', False)
 
         fname = os.path.abspath(os.path.expanduser(fname))
 
@@ -2288,9 +2292,13 @@ class InteractiveShell(SingletonConfigurable, Magic):
                 # 0
                 # For other exit status, we show the exception unless
                 # explicitly silenced, but only in short form.
+                if kw['raise_exceptions']:
+                    raise
                 if status.code not in (0, None) and not kw['exit_ignore']:
                     self.showtraceback(exception_only=True)
             except:
+                if kw['raise_exceptions']:
+                    raise
                 self.showtraceback()
 
     def safe_execfile_ipy(self, fname):
diff --git a/IPython/core/tests/test_interactiveshell.py b/IPython/core/tests/test_interactiveshell.py
index cf11845..f736936 100644
--- a/IPython/core/tests/test_interactiveshell.py
+++ b/IPython/core/tests/test_interactiveshell.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
 """Tests for the key interactiveshell module.
 
 Historically the main classes in interactiveshell have been under-tested.  This
@@ -19,7 +20,11 @@ Authors
 # Imports
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # stdlib
+import os
+import shutil
+import tempfile
 import unittest
+from os.path import join
 from StringIO import StringIO
 
 from IPython.testing import decorators as dec
@@ -193,3 +198,25 @@ class InteractiveShellTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
             assert name not in ip.user_ns_hidden, name
         assert ip.user_ns['b'] == 12
         ip.reset()
+
+class TestSafeExecfileNonAsciiPath(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.BASETESTDIR = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+        self.TESTDIR = join(self.BASETESTDIR, u"åäö")
+        os.mkdir(self.TESTDIR)
+        with open(join(self.TESTDIR, u"åäötestscript.py"), "w") as sfile:
+            sfile.write("pass\n")
+        self.oldpath = os.getcwdu()
+        os.chdir(self.TESTDIR)
+        self.fname = u"åäötestscript.py"
+
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        os.chdir(self.oldpath)
+        shutil.rmtree(self.BASETESTDIR)
+
+    def test_1(self):
+        """Test safe_execfile with non-ascii path
+        """
+        _ip.shell.safe_execfile(self.fname, raise_exceptions=True)
diff --git a/IPython/utils/py3compat.py b/IPython/utils/py3compat.py
index 1016e77..68a8681 100644
--- a/IPython/utils/py3compat.py
+++ b/IPython/utils/py3compat.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # coding: utf-8
 """Compatibility tricks for Python 3. Mainly to do with unicode."""
+import __builtin__
 import functools
 import sys
 import re
@@ -142,6 +143,7 @@ else:
     def doctest_refactor_print(func_or_str):
         return func_or_str
 
+
     # Abstract u'abc' syntax:
     @_modify_str_or_docstring
     def u_format(s):
@@ -149,3 +151,22 @@ else:
         
         Accepts a string or a function, so it can be used as a decorator."""
         return s.format(u='u')
+
+    if sys.platform == 'win32':
+        def execfile(fname, glob=None, loc=None):
+            loc = loc if (loc is not None) else glob
+            scripttext = __builtin__.open(fname).read()
+            # compile converts unicode filename to str assuming
+            # ascii. Let's do the conversion before calling compile
+            if isinstance(fname, unicode):
+                filename = unicode_to_str(fname)
+            else:
+                filename = fname
+            exec compile(scripttext, filename, 'exec') in glob, loc
+    else:
+        def execfile(fname, *where):
+            if isinstance(fname, unicode):
+                filename = fname.encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding())
+            else:
+                filename = fname
+            __builtin__.execfile(filename, *where)