Barbara Loden’s first and only feature film, one she wrote, directed and starred in, has nevertheless exerted a huge influence on filmmakers of all genders ever since.
Set in industrial Pennsylvania, it foregrounds a kind of character seldom seen on screen. Soft-spoken and somewhat detached, Wanda has left her husband and given up her kids. She’s a loner, who drifts between rundown bars and motels, ripe for exploitation by unscrupulous men – including a bank robber who ropes her into his next job. Shot in an intensely intimate vérité style, this indie masterpiece has never been screened frequently enough. Wanda is a compassionate and wrenching portrait of a woman stranded on society’s fringes.
