Capitalist Drive

Year 2004  Duration 55 Minutes

A very personal account of one family and its links across two continents and three generations, despite political divides.

In Capitalist Drive, award-winning filmmaker Barbara Chobocky turns the camera on her own extended family to discover how ordinary people cope with social and personal upheaval. For 40 years, the conflict between capitalism and communism separated her parents and their children in Australia from relatives in Prague. Yet there are fascinating parallels between the challenges facing her enterprising cousins as they negotiate the first years of free-market democracy in the Czech Republic and the experiences of her father as a post-World War Two migrant to what he called “the wild west”.

Each faced a new world with high hopes for the future, embarking on similar quests for economic prosperity. But freedom proved to be a double-edged sword...

Capitalist Drive looks at life in the aftermath of the historic changes that shook Europe in the 1940s and in 1989, and the struggles involved in starting afresh - no matter where you are. It uncovers stories of love and loss, dreams and disappointments, including a father’s drive to succeed and the impact it had on those around him. And as we get to know these characters and their pasts, we discover shared passions and ambitions, including a rather eccentric attachment to cars.

A Film Australia National Interest Program in association with Documentary Films. Produced with the assistance of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
© National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.