Polytechnique

Polytechnique dramatizes the mass shooting that took place at a Montreal engineering school on December 6, 1989, when a young man entered the building armed and intent on killing as many women as he could. The film follows the events largely through two students, Valérie and Jean-François, whose lives are upended that day, and it draws on accounts given by survivors of the attack.

The film is directed by Denis Villeneuve, who wrote the screenplay with Jacques Davidts and Eric Leca. It is the third of the thirteen features he has directed in chronological order, coming after Maelström and before Incendies. Karine Vanasse plays Valérie and Sébastien Huberdeau plays Jean-François, with Maxim Gaudette as the assailant. Shot in black and white with a runtime of 77 minutes, it was produced in Canada by Don Carmody Productions and Remstar Productions. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.1 out of 10 from 715 votes, and its critics' rating stands at 7.1 out of 10 from 17 reviews, so audiences and critics have received it similarly.