Wanda (1970)

Barbara Loden’s tough, unsentimental portrait of a woman adrift in the industrial heartlands of the north-eastern United States.

“How can a woman ever afford to be both wayward and astray? Wanda showed us how it’s done without telling us why (or why not). Loden’s crisp sensitivity and sudden spikes of ambivalence are immortalised in her debut, and only, feature film as a director.” Savina Petkova

“Flies in the face of the generic American road movie’s petro-capitalist and patriarchal fantasies.” Becca Voelcker

“Quite simply, there is nothing else like this film.” Anna Backman Rogers

1970 USA
Directed by
Barbara Loden
Produced by
Harry Shuster
Written by
Barbara Loden
Featuring
Barbara Loden, Michael Higgins, Dorothy Shupenes
Running time
100 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for Wanda

Critics

Marcelo Alderete
Argentina
Hicham Awad
Lebanon/USA
Anna Backman Rogers
Sweden
Cecilia Barrionuevo
Argentina
Madeleine Bernstorff
Germany
Claude Bertemes
Luxembourg
Sam Bodrojan
USA
Nandana Bose
India
Sophie Brown
UK
Esther Buss
Germany
Kameron Collins
USA
Lillian Crawford
UK
Kit Duckworth
USA
Elsa Fernández-Santos
Spain
Lautaro García Candela
Argentina
Lisa Gotto
Austria
Emma Gray Munthe
Sweden
Susannah Gruder
USA
A. S. Hamrah
USA
Simran Hans
UK
Tina Hassannia
Canada
Vinzenz Hediger
Germany
Wendy Ide
UK
Olivier Joyard
France
Alexia Kannas
Australia
Emmanuelle Lacalm
France
Leila Latif
UK/Sudan
Dorota Lech
Canada/Poland
Dietrich Leder
Germany
Ross Lipman
USA
Beatrice Loayza
USA
Adrian Martin
Australia/Spain
Katie McCabe
UK
Isabel Moir
UK
James Naremore
USA
Marcos Ortega
Spain
María Palacios Cruz
UK
Savina Petkova
Bulgaria/UK
Dana Polan
USA
Robert Polito
USA
Caitlin Quinlan
UK
Katie Rife
USA
Maria San Filippo
USA
Amy Sloper
USA
Caitlin Smith
UK
Juan José Vidal
Argentina
Becca Voelcker
UK
Tim Wong
New Zealand

Directors

Allison Anders
USA
Nan Goldin
USA
Carmen Jaquier
Switzerland
John Michael McDonagh
UK/Ireland
Nina Menkes
USA
Cristi Puiu
Romania
Amy Seimetz
USA
Mika Taanila
Finland
Athina Rachel Tsangari
Greece