A few hours away from the world premiere of Mad Ship at the Whistler Film Festival and filmmakers David Mortin and Patricia Fogliato have the usual opening night jitters.

Seated anonymously among early evening diners in the Whistler village, they’re philosophical about a wild journey’s end at the west coast festival for an indie feature about a Depression-era Canadian immigrant driven to madness by building a massive boat in the middle of the Prairie dustbowl.

“You have to have a dream. And sometimes you have to make a lot of sacrifices to accomplish,” Fogliato, co-writer and producer of Mad Ship, told Playback.

The true-life drama from indie producers Buffalo Gal Pictures and Enigmatico is as much a study of a man driven by great optimism and ideals before being felled by cruel fate, as much as an ode to indie filmmaking and its call for artists to sacrifice greatly to get what’s in their head onto the screen.

“The outsized character of Tomas, of his belief in pursuing his dream, and not been willing to let it go, and his pride, that’s an exaggeration of what it takes to see a film through to its end,” Mortin, who co-wrote and also directed Mad Ship, explained.

Tomas Sorensen, a Norwegian immigrant to Canada played by Nikolaj Lie Kass, in Mad Ship goes on a quixotic mission to build a ship on the Prairies to stave off madness and declare his love for his family.

It’s the dramatic image of a man dragging a full-sale boat across the far-as-the-eye-can-see Prairie dustbowl that forms the beginning of Mad Ship.

That opening scene allows Mortin and Fogliato to work a script six years in the making backwards from that point to create a portrait of a sane man in insane circumstances.

“It resonated for both of us in a really strong way: what brings a man to that point, if it’s not pure madness, is there a more human and accessible way to bring him there,” Mortin said of a film that offers audiences the catharsis of a Greek tragedy, as a man experiences a test of mental and physical survival, before a great fall.

Mad Ship has similarly been more than a labour of love for the Canadian filmmaking duo.

Mortin and Fogliato not only jointly wrote, produced and directed documentaries and dramatic art films for two decades.

They are also husband and wife, which means their efforts to get industry backers and the public aboard Mad Ship, starting in Whistler, often mirrored Tomas and his own story of improbable love and hope on screen.

“There’s always that moment along the journey, where you question, is this an act of vulnerable tenacity to keep pursuing this thing, or just an act of ego and selfishness,” Mortin said of the sometimes Sisyphean effort that is making a Canadian film.

“And you look around and see there are people who love you and that you love that are at risk because of this,” he added.

Fogliato agreed making Mad Ship was as much personal as professional for herself and Mortin.

“We’re a couple, doing it together, so it’s all on the line,” she insisted.

To Mortin’s admission of frequent bouts of creative obsession while making films, Fogliato’s face flashes a look of mock horror, while his own offers a forgive-me-smile.

That said, Mortin and Fogliato aren’t complaining about having put it all on the line to debut Mad Ship as part of the Borsos competition.

It comes with the territory.

“In order for us to commit to a story and a script, we have to find that emotional connection to it, and then it becomes an exaggeration of what’s going on in our lives,” Mortin said of the all-consuming nature of filmmaking.