Wanda (WA)

New Hollywood cinema of the early 1960s and 1970s, and European auteur cinema of the same period, are teeming with drifter characters. In WANDA, Barbara Loden tells the story, for the first time, of a female character who is on the move in this way. Wanda, played by Loden herself, has left her husband and children and is on a quest, the destination of which remains unclear. With no fixed abode or job, never staying in one place for long, yet harbouring a vague longing for a sense of belonging, she drifts through the world. Any man who wishes to may invite her to dinner; she goes with him into any hotel room; and when a bank robber makes her his accomplice, she follows him as a matter of course. Wanda always tries not to cause any trouble; ‘I’m just no good,’ she says when asked about herself. Yet beneath the surface, emotions, thoughts and longings are seething.