Polytechnique, Denis Villeneuve’s portrayal of 1989’s Montreal Massacre, is a certified hit in Quebec, where it has earned more than $1.5 million after six weeks. Given the continuing resonance of the tragedy — several English-language media outlets covered the reaction in Quebec — there were expectations the film might capitalize on buzz when it opened March 20 on four screens in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary.

No such luck. Don Carmody, who produced the film along with Maxime Remillard’s Remstar Productions, is blunt in his assessment of its performance in the rest of Canada: ‘Dreadful.’ Alliance reported grosses of $4,126 for four screens.

So a Québécois film didn’t do well in English Canada — what else is new?

With a few notable exceptions, the two solitudes have made a habit of ignoring each others’ films. But Polytechnique was different. Rather than present a dubbed or subtitled version for the English market, it was shot scene by scene first in French and then in English.

‘All the actors speak English, so we decided they should try doing their own dialogue,’ says Carmody. ‘There was a concern that the accents wouldn’t play, but it’s Canada so people know the Quebec accent. And it’s a Quebec story.’ Even the newspaper advertisements note the film is not dubbed.

‘We didn’t have high expectations,’ concedes Carmody. ‘But the per-screen average was ridiculously low. It’s always been an art-house film, [but] it didn’t even do art-house business.’

Calling it ‘one of the most discussed films of the year in Quebec,’ Alliance SVP of marketing and publicity Mark Slone added in an e-mail comment, ‘We hope that people in other provinces will take this opportunity to see the English version of this important film.’

Carmody is holding out hope that a major festival invitation — are you listening, Cannes? — will lead to a second kick at the English theatrical can. And there’s always Winnipeg, where the film opens April 10.