Muristek
I’m Wanita review – an irresistible portrait of Australia’s ‘queen of honky tonk’
This jaunty film, about an artist you’ve most likely never heard of, shows us life dreams do not have to disappear as youth fades
Director Matthew Walker’s irresistibly fun and jaunty documentary follows an artist you’ve most likely never heard of, but after a viewing will probably never forget: Wanita Bahtiyar, Australia’s self-professed “queen of honky tonk”, country music singer and longtime sex worker. The film begins with her walking down an outback road in a beautiful royal blue dress, declaring via voiceover that “it’s insane, all of this is insane” – an accurate description of the contemporary human condition.
Flighty, squirrely and eccentric, Wanita is someone most would call “a free spirit” – though she is certainly no pushover or shrinking violet; early in the film, Wanita reflects on how her mother once told her Hank Williams died from singing, which led her to think “that’s how I’m going to go”. There is an inference that Wanita has frittered some of her life away, getting “sidetracked” in Tamworth, New South Wales for 25 years, missing or squandering opportunities, partly as a result of her fickle and bullish personality.
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