Wanda

Winner of Best Foreign Film at the Venice Film Festival, writer and director Barbara Loden stars in the title role as a housewife on the run.

Barbara Loden’s first and last directorial feature was inspired by a news story she had read about a woman who thanked a judge for convicting her to jail time, if only because of the respite it offered from the drudgery of daily life.

Her film depicts a Pennsylvania housewife (Loden) in coal mining country who drops her marriage and parental responsibilities to drift through a series of bars and motels until she pairs up with a criminal on the run. A glamorous, romanticized Bonnie-and-Clyde tale, this is not – Wanda is a lost and aimless soul. After years in the wilderness, with very few public screenings, her story is now widely recognized as an American classic, one that portrays a traditionally undervalued and overlooked section of society. Ranked joint 48th in the 2022 Sight and Sound Great Films of All Time poll.