Seville Pictures is on a mission to put Canadians in front of Shake Hands with the Devil, and has put $2 million into prints and promotion for the film, which arrives on 100 screens across the country on Friday.

Seville co-president David Reckziegel notes this is not normal, but says the whole team at the Montreal-based distributor is ‘very passionate’ about getting the story out.

‘It’s the most we’ve ever spent marketing a Canadian film by far,’ he tells Playback Daily, adding that despite the difficult subject matter, ‘it’s a film every Canadian should see.’

The drama, which recounts retired Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire’s daunting personal journey through the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, will play on 55 screens in Quebec, while the remainder will be released in English Canada in cities including Edmonton, Victoria, Kingston, Regina and Halifax. It is directed by Roger Spottiswoode and stars Quebec thesp Roy Dupuis as Dallaire. Producers include Barna-Alper Productions and Halifax Film.

Reckziegel says Seville collaborated with the Canadian branch of Amnesty International and military family centers on the grassroots promotion of the film, which included a contest to win tickets to the film’s premiere at TIFF.

‘Obviously anyone involved with the military would have an interest in the film,’ he notes. Promotion also consisted of TV, radio and online advertising, in addition to large outdoor banners at Cineplex theaters across Canada.

Reckziegel did not want to speculate on the film’s chances at the box office, pointing out that it’s ‘very hard to set any kind of objectives’ with Canuck films.

‘We’re having a wide enough release to give it an opportunity, [but] there’s a lot of good films out there, which is creating a more crowded marketplace,’ he says.

Shake Hands will face U.S. releases including the Saudi Arabia-set actioner The Kingdom, from Universal Pictures; the Walt Disney comedy The Game Plan, starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson; and the MGM romantic drama Feast of Love.

Meanwhile, Mongrel Media is releasing the ensemble drama The Jane Austen Book Club on one screen in Toronto, before expanding it Oct. 5 to cities including Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Montreal. TVA Films is opening the supernatural thriller Puffball, from Brit director Nicolas Roeg, on one screen each in Toronto and Montreal.

François Girard’s period drama Silk, about a married silkworm merchant’s affair with a Japanese concubine, expands into English Canada Friday, where it will play on 17 screens in cities including Toronto, Vancouver, Waterloo, Ottawa, Coquitlam and Halifax. The film, which had its world premiere at TIFF, opened amid lukewarm reviews last week on 62 screens in Quebec. Silk stars Keira Knightley and Michael Pitt.

Coming up, Odeon Films will release director Ang Lee’s war drama Lust, Caution, which won the Golden Lion award at Venice, in Toronto next week, opposite Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited, distributed by Fox Searchlight.