For the first time in a long time, the predominant language in the highest-grossing indigenous film is not French. It isn’t English either.

Water, by Toronto director Deepa Mehta, struck a chord at the Canadian box office, bringing in nearly $221,000 in just 11 theaters after its Nov. 4 release in Toronto and Vancouver, averaging a whopping $20,000 per theater. The Hindi-language film, about impoverished widows in 1930s India, brought in another $302,900 over the Nov. 11 weekend, when it expanded to 41 theaters across the country, for a cumulative of $504,400 by Nov. 14, according to distributor Mongrel Media.

Water received a marketing push reserved for few Canadian releases outside of Quebec, with TV spots, radio ads, postering, transit ads, and a glossy insert in The Globe and Mail on Nov. 12.

‘With Water we knew right away that it was a very special film,’ says Tom Alexander, Mongrel’s director of theatrical releasing. ‘Our release plan was to make it feel like a very special and important film. We began our ads early on before the release. The idea was to create a slow build through every channel we could.’

The film has also been advertised heavily in Canadian South Asian newspapers. Mongrel plans to continue the slow rollout by turning its attention and ad dollars to other ethno-specific and campus publications.

Mongrel is more-than-pleased with Water’s results. ‘We feel the film has done very well and exceeded our expectations,’ says Alexander. ‘Our strategy is to keep the film alive and going as long as we can.’

Water will open in the U.S. in March 2006.

Meanwhile, Capri Releasing’s well-reviewed thriller The Dark Hours, about a female doctor terrorized by a man claiming to be a former patient, came out on Nov. 11 and drew $12,500 on six screens across the country. Made through the Canadian Film Centre’s Feature Film Project, The Dark Hours is directed by Paul Fox and stars Kate Greenhouse and Aidan Devine.

In other news, Christal Films’ would-be epic Nouvelle-France met with a lack of enthusiasm in English Canada, bringing in only about $1,800 on two screens, in Toronto and Vancouver. It was pulled after its opening week of Oct. 21. The film, budgeted at $35 million, brought in a mere $2.2 million in Quebec earlier this year.

Finally, ThinkFilm has once again pushed the release of Clement Virgo’s sexually charged drama Lie with Me to Nov. 25 from Nov. 11.