Screenwriter Joel Harris (left) and director Josias Tschanz (right) - Photo by Jasmine Gurm

Screenwriter Joel Mark Harris’ fate was sealed from the get-go when he embraced his good friend Josias Tschanz’s native Swiss culture. Harris was prepared to have his butt handed to him during schwingen – a Swiss-style throw-down where two men, wearing leather hosing, duke it out in sawdust….and all that tussling around led to their first movie.

Inspired by director and producer Josias Tschanz’s real-life, the film Neutral Territory lifts the veil on the cross-cultural challenges that often go unobserved and misunderstood as first and second generation youth struggle to locate a balance between their cultural heritage and their Western lifestyle.

The film unravels the complex nature of this continuous tug-of-war in the context of a dynamic father/son relationship that finds itself at the intersection of inter-generational and cross-cultural conflict.

Main character, Henry Huge, played by Tschanz (whose real father is also his on-screen father), immigrated to Canada with his family and has been hell-bent on severing any connection he has to his Swiss roots. Not wanting to be tied down by tradition, Henry comes to embody and emulate everything and anything that he deems representative of Western life. From the car, to the girl, Henry represents the epitome of the North American Dream – however, in a struggle to maintain this so-called ideal, Henry finds himself at a crossroads where he will have to commit the ultimate comprise to keep this dream alive.

With a first time director/producer, first-time screen-writer and a cast of first-time actors, Neutral Territory’s creation and subsequent success has truly been a labour of love. From the moment the script was written to the completion of filming, a mere three months had elapsed.

Producing a feature film under such time constraints was a risk Tschanz had to take – he recalls telling himself, “I know I won’t have the perfect film, but I’ll have a film I really care about.”

With that, the twelve day shoot commenced, and through the dedication and commitment of every cast and crew member, along with the outpouring of love and support of the Burns Lake community (where the film was shot), Tschanz’s Neutral Territory dream became a reality.

Neutral Territory has premiered at eighteen film festivals from Beijing to New York, and won awards for Best Feature Film, Best Cinematography, Best Female Actress (Laura McCarthy) and Best Female Supporting Actress (Crystal DeBruyn). In addition to being an under-dog success story, Tschanz and Harris feel this has been the opportunity of a lifetime as they have traveled the world, forged new industry connections and welcomed new sources of inspiration into their lives.

But this success came with a cost – sacrificing sleep, relationships, homes, cars and their own money. Tschanz and Harris found themselves on the emotional rollercoaster of a lifetime as they faced rejection upon rejection in their struggle to get Neutral Territory some form of recognition.

A true team at heart, when one was ready to throw in the towel, Harris says it was “Josias determination to get the film out there,” that kept them going. “[Josias] was the driving force behind it.”

In February 2011 the boys’ chance finally came when Neutral Territory was accepted into the Beliot International Film Festival. Where is Beliot? – Wisconsin!

At the end of the day, when Tschanz asked Harris “dude, you are divorced, you spent a lot of money, you lost your house over [this], how do you feel?” Harris recalls replying, “I have no regrets …we’re going to New York…to see our movie in Times Square.”

Perhaps this lack of regret also had something to do with the fact that Harris’ life long dream of meeting his leading lady, Megan Fox, was about to come true at the New York International Film Festival.

What was he going to say upon meeting the one and only Miss. Fox? Well, an option he was pondering at the time was, “I loved you in Transformers 3.”