Amid Harry Potter mania at the box office, Maple Pictures and Seville Pictures are looking to tempt some moviegoers away from Hogwarts, releasing the controversial horror Captivity Friday in theaters across Canada.

The film, from U.K. director Roland Joffé (The Mission, The Killing Fields), about the abduction and subsequent torture of a fashion model, will play wide in English Canada through Maple, while unspooling on six screens in Montreal and Gatineau via Seville. Captivity, handled by Lionsgate in the U.S., provoked controversy and public outcry over its graphic billboard campaign when it arrived earlier this year in New York and Los Angeles. Lionsgate changed its ads, and tamer images are being used by Maple and Seville.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, meanwhile, has already broken box-office records south of the border in advance of its first weekend for Warner Bros. The fifth adaptation of the J.K. Rowling books rang in US$12 million with its Wednesday debut — the most for a midweek opening in Hollywood’s history, according to Variety.

In addition to Captivity, Seville is quietly releasing Danish director Lars von Trier’s latest, The Boss of It All, on three screens in la belle province, sending two French prints to Quebec City and an English one to Montreal. It’s also opening on one screen in Toronto.

A spokesperson at Seville says Boss is the first von Trier title the company has handled, noting they’re ‘very happy to have this one.’ The Montreal distributor is also releasing the comedy Introducing the Dwights, from Warner Independent Pictures, on one screen in Montreal.

Also arriving in limited release this week is Maple’s thriller Joshua, from Fox Searchlight Pictures, opening in Toronto’s Cumberland theater. The film expands to Vancouver and Montreal next week.

Coming up, actor-turned-director Steve Buscemi’s drama Interview is set for a July 20 release in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal via Peace Arch Entertainment, alongside the Toronto-shot musical Hairspray, from Alliance Atlantis.