Polina (2026)

Polina is a gifted young dancer. When she enters a renowned dance academy, Professor Nikita Božinskij selects her to train with an advanced class under his guidance. He later even offers her the chance to collaborate on a solo piece he has composed himself. Božinskij is both admired and feared as a demanding teacher, while Polina has a strong will of her own. The situation inevitably moves towards conflict. Can the young woman become independent and find her own path within the academy’s rigid training? And will it hurt? Where does the boundary lie between collaboration and submission? Bastien Vives is a renowned French comic artist, and few can capture the human body in motion with such precise economy. His artwork can be dynamic as well as meditative, with variations in the contour lines reflecting changes in mood and a range of emotions. In this graphic novel, whose contents are in Czech, he tells the story using only black, white and shades of grey, mirroring both the grace of the dancers and the tension in the relationships between teachers and the lively young students.