Wanda
USA 1970

Director: Barbara Loden
35mm | English
Original version

Wanda (played by director Barbara Loden herself) lives with her husband and two children in a shack in a dreary coal mining area. Because she neglects her housework, her husband files for divorce. Wanda gives up her previous life, relinquishes custody of her children – “they are better off with him” – loses her job and drifts through poor Pennsylvania on her own. When she meets a small-time crook in a bar, she gets involved in a bank robbery. Barbara Loden's unsentimental directorial debut remains her only feature film and is now considered one of the most important films of 1970s American independent cinema.
"For me, the miracle lies not in the way she acts, but in the fact that in the film, [...] she is even more herself than she must have been in real life [...]. I insist on this because it moved me deeply. It is as if she achieves a kind of sacralization in the film of what she wants to show as a state of decay, but which, in my opinion, is something wonderful, a very, very strong, very intense and very deep radiance." (Marguerite Duras)

Event starts at 8:00 p.m. with DJ, bar, and more
Pre-show program starts at 9:00 p.m.
Film starts at 9:15 p.m.

Saturday, June 20, 2026, 9:00 p.m.
Meadow in front of the HfG
Free admission, donations welcome