Polytechnique

It is 31 years ago that psychotic misogynist Marc Lépine killed fourteen female students at the École Polytechnique, an engineering school affiliated with the University of Montreal, before taking his own life. This harrowing Canadian drama re-enacts those horrifying events through the eyes of two students although it was decided that for the film the names of survivors and victims would be changed.

Filmed in b/w the opening scene depicts a fragment of the horror that would unfold later, before briefly returning to an apartment in which Valérie (Karine Vanasse) and Stéphanie (Evelyne Brochu) get ready for another busy day at the Montreal École Polytechnique – in Valérie’s case she gets ready for an interview that, if successful, would see her as an intern for an engineering company. Following the interview she complains to her friend that the conductor was patronising towards her by suggesting it is unusual for a woman enter this kind of job.
Next we are introduced to male student Jean-Francois (Sèbastien Huberdeau) and in a brief flashback scene we get a glimpse of his apartment and his routine before he sets off through snow-covered streets until he too reaches the Polytechnique. It is the 6th of December 1989. While some students can be seen taking a break in the large cafeteria others are busy studying in various classrooms. None of them are aware that a young man (Maxim Gaudette) has also entered the building. Via a short flashback scene we see him writing what appears to be a suicide note which he reads out aloud. We learn that the young man has applied twice for admission to the Polytechnique but was refused due to lacking two required compulsory courses. We also learn that throughout his life he encountered problems thanks to his introvert and anti-social persona and that he harbours pure hatred against society in general and against women in particular - especially ‘feminists’ and their demands for equal rights at work while at the same time expecting to be treated as women.

No one takes notice of the young many carrying a large bag and holding a longish object wrapped in what looks like a black bin liner. Observing the goings-on in the cafeteria he then enters a classroom in which mechanical engineering is taught – ordering the female students to stand to one side of the wall while asking the male students, including Jean-Francois, to leave the room… with Jean-Francois initially refusing to do so but leaving the room in order not to provoke the killer further. Minutes later, after a short exchange in which he makes it clear that he hates feminists, the group of female students all lie on the floor in a pool of blood – either dead or barely alive. Among the survivors is Valérie who promises to get help for her wounded friend Stéphanie. Badly injured with multiple shot wounds including a bullet wound to her leg Valérie’s attempt to fetch help when, after crawling along one of the corridors, she realises that the rampage is still in full swing in another room. By the time she returns to the classroom Stéphanie is slipping away. By now Jean-Francois also has returned and is confronted with images of unimaginable horror. Frantically he runs along endless corridors and stairs to reach the reception and asks the receptionist to call the police (this was before the age of mobile phones remember). He then returns to the various scenes of the crime to tend to some of the wounded students (of which most are women) with the killer still on the loose before he too takes his own life, but not before having massacred another female teacher and some more students. By the time police and paramedics arrive fourteen women were dead, another stabbed to death and many more students – both male and female – wounded.

The aftermath shows how Jean-Francois was unable to move on from this dreadful day, feeling guilt for having abandoned the classroom when the killer had threatened the students. After a visit to his mother, whose obviously worried about his fragile mental state, he drives to a remote field and takes his own life by inhaling carbon monoxide. Many months later, survivor Valérie makes it into the circle of professional engineers but learns that she is pregnant, remarking that she is tired of being a tough fighter and if the potential baby is a son she will teach him to be loving and if the baby is a girl she will teach her that the world belongs to her.

The award-winning film is a stark reminder that anti-feminism and misogyny has never really gone away and thus makes this a drama which serves as so much more than just a re-enactment of those terrible events in 1989.
This Blu-ray release (with optional English- and French-language versions) furthermore contains the 52-minute long 30th anniversary documentary ‘Polytechnique: What remains of 6 December’ plus illustrated booklet.