"The most important dance is the one that happens inside us.
Particles of our body are dancing
With hundreds of different rhythms and grace."— Jelaluddin Rumi
Polina (Veronika Zhovnytska) has been dancing ballet since the age of four. Her father has a great yearning for his daughter to become a member of the famous Bolshoi Ballet. Training at a Russian ballet Academy, Polina catches the eye of a demanding teacher (Aleksey Guskov) who wants her to be more expressive in her style. Secretly this sensitive young girl gives herself up to the improvisational beauty of dance as she skips, jumps, and twirls through the woods.
Polina (Anastasia Shevtsova) is accepted by the Bolshoi Ballet but taps into her free spirit after attending a contemporary dance performance. She leaves the rigors of classical ballet and begins working with Lira Elsaj (Juliette Binoche) in France. With this new teacher, Polina is inspired to become a choreographer. Luckily, she finds a dancing soul mate who works with street kids using improvised movement as therapy.
Valérie Müller and Angelin Preljocaj direct this winning drama based upon Bastien Vivès 's graphic novel. Anastasia Shevtsova, a former member of the Mariinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, does a marvelous job leading us through Polina's explorations of the many fields of contemporary dance.
"A dancer, if she is great, can give to the people something that they can carry with them forever. They can never forget it, and it has changed them, though they may never know it."
— Isadora Duncan
Polina is lyrical look at the shining inner world of a dancer on a quest to find her own way to express her true self, the beauty of the body, and the enchantments of the world in which she lives.