Wanda, a lonely housewife, drifts through mining country until she meets a petty thief who takes her in.
Wanda (Barbara Loden) is a wanderer in a dreary Rust Belt town, drifting from bars to motels, jobs to jobs and men to men. She's directionless and futureless, an aging beauty seen by men as usable and disposable. She hands over custody of her children because she knows they're better with their father. She eventually tags along with Norman Dennis (Michael Higgins), a petty criminal on the run. He's desperate, disreputable and abusive, but Wanda, meekly accepting her fate, still sleeps with him.
Presented as part of our Talking Pictures series. Join filmmaker Terrance Odette and film programmer Wendy Guymer-Tutt for a post screening discussion!
"Realism doesn't entirely do justice to the world Wanda inhabits, which, for all the grit and grunge of its bars and diners and factory floors, is also a world of startling everyday beauty." - Los Angeles Times
"[Loden] captures the ambiance of small-time roadhouses with compelling accuracy; she manages through some clever location photography to convey an almost overwhelming sense of lingering desperation." - TIME Magazine
"A brilliantly atmospheric film with a superb performance by Loden." - Chicago Reader