diff --git a/doc/curlftpfs.1 b/doc/curlftpfs.1
index 37b9583..878ff6b 100644
--- a/doc/curlftpfs.1
+++ b/doc/curlftpfs.1
@@ -253,6 +253,10 @@ structure. Otherwise those links will very probably be broken.
 .B user=<user:password>
 Specify  user  and  password  to  use for server authentication.  Overrides
 netrc configuration.
+.TP
+.B utf8
+Try to transfer file list with UTF-8 encoding. Send OPTS UTF8 ON at the  
+beginning of file list transfer.
 .SH FUSE OPTIONS
 .TP
 .B "-d"
diff --git a/ftpfs.c b/ftpfs.c
index faecb99..b463c57 100644
--- a/ftpfs.c
+++ b/ftpfs.c
@@ -260,6 +260,7 @@ static struct fuse_opt ftpfs_opts[] = {
   FTPFS_OPT("sslv3",              ssl_version, CURL_SSLVERSION_SSLv3),
   FTPFS_OPT("ipv4",               ip_version, CURL_IPRESOLVE_V4),
   FTPFS_OPT("ipv6",               ip_version, CURL_IPRESOLVE_V6),
+  FTPFS_OPT("utf8",               tryutf8, 1),
 
   FUSE_OPT_KEY("-h",             KEY_HELP),
   FUSE_OPT_KEY("--help",         KEY_HELP),
@@ -1008,6 +1009,7 @@ static void usage(const char* progname) {
 "    sslv3               use SSLv3 (SSL)\n"
 "    ipv4                resolve name to IPv4 address\n"
 "    ipv6                resolve name to IPv6 address\n"
+"    utf8                try to transfer file list with utf-8 encoding\n"
 "\n", progname);
 }
 
@@ -1020,6 +1022,19 @@ static void set_common_curl_stuff(CURL* easy) {
   curl_easy_setopt_or_die(easy, CURLOPT_NOSIGNAL, 1);
   curl_easy_setopt_or_die(easy, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, "LIST -a");
 
+  if (ftpfs.tryutf8) {
+    // We'll let the slist leak, as it will still be accessible within
+    // libcurl. If we ever want to add more commands to CURLOPT_QUOTE, we'll
+    // have to think of a better strategy.
+    struct curl_slist *slist = NULL;
+
+    // Adding the QUOTE here will make this command be sent with every request.
+    // This is necessary to ensure that the server is still in UTF8 mode after
+    // we get disconnected and automatically reconnect.
+    slist = curl_slist_append(slist, "OPTS UTF8 ON");
+    curl_easy_setopt_or_die(easy, CURLOPT_QUOTE, slist);
+  }
+
   if (ftpfs.verbose) {
     curl_easy_setopt_or_die(easy, CURLOPT_VERBOSE, TRUE);
   }
diff --git a/ftpfs.h b/ftpfs.h
index 4ea830e..ccb03cb 100644
--- a/ftpfs.h
+++ b/ftpfs.h
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ struct ftpfs {
   size_t symlink_prefix_len;
   curl_version_info_data* curl_version;
   int safe_nobody;
+  int tryutf8;
 };
 
 extern struct ftpfs ftpfs;