Portraits
Anna Polina
Anna Polina is a screen performer and director whose work connects adult cinema, theatre training and independent film. Her performance in Morgan Simon’s Plaisir fantôme brought her to the Directors’ Fortnight selection at Cannes in 2019.
Anna Polina
The person behind the name
Anna Polina’s interest in performance began with ballet and theatre. She attended Cours Simon while at secondary school, later studied French and Russian law at Nanterre, and returned to acting through evening classes at Cours Florent. Her route into screen work grew from curiosity, reading and an appetite for new experiences.
Originally from Saint Petersburg, she has spoken warmly of Paris as the city she loves most. Her public career includes adult-film performance, directing and a leading role in Plaisir fantôme. Interviews reveal a lasting attachment to playwrights, a practical interest in filmmaking and pleasure in everyday music, good weather and time with people she enjoys.
Words, rehearsals and the cameraA path through the performing arts
Ballet, theatre and tennis all belonged to her early life. Theatre stood out because it opened the door to writers and characters. At Cours Simon, during her school years, discovering dramatic literature helped turn an enjoyable activity into a deeper interest in acting.
University brought a different atmosphere. She found the large lecture halls and pressure of law studies at Nanterre difficult after a supportive school environment. Her parents encouraged her to pursue something fulfilling, and evening classes at Cours Florent became the next step.
From curiosity to a profession
Her first approach to adult filmmaking was an experiment rather than a settled career plan. Reading Virginie Despentes helped spark questions about the work, and she contacted a director. She later returned, finding an environment that combined acting, styling, performance and collaboration.
As her career developed, a studio contract helped her learn the profession. Looking back in 2017, she credited that period with giving her tools to sustain a working life in film. She also valued the opportunities to travel and the people she met through productions.
Portraits
Taking a place behind the camera
By February 2017, Polina had completed her second film as a director. It was her first for Canal Plus, made in collaboration with Colmax. She described a story about relationships and social networks, with an audience of people in their thirties particularly in mind.
Directing gave her room to develop her own perspective within a familiar industry. In that interview, she spoke about making work that interested her personally. The move added authorship and decisions about a story to the on-camera experience she had already accumulated.
Different kinds of screen presence
Her film credits also reach into other forms of cinema. Echap places her in a horror-film cast, while Il n’y a pas de rapport sexuel lists her as herself in a documentary. These are different kinds of appearance: a fictional performance and participation under her own professional identity.
Plaisir fantôme added a leading dramatic role. Its director, Morgan Simon, did not write the part specifically for her; they met through casting. He found her attentive to the film’s emotional direction and chose her to carry a character whose public confidence conceals an unsettled inner life.
Jeanne and Plaisir fantôme
In the 16-minute short, Polina plays Jeanne, an adult-film performer raising her daughter and dreaming of a trip to the sea. The film had its world premiere in the 2019 Directors’ Fortnight selection at Cannes, then appeared at the Saint-Jean-de-Luz festival.
The film portraits here show Polina performing that fictional character. Jeanne’s family circumstances belong to the screenplay. Simon’s story considers repetition and weariness at work, allowing small shifts in expression and attention to suggest a life beyond the performance expected of her.
A voice in conversations about cinema
In 2024, she joined Osez Le Ciné for a 40-minute interview recorded on the FILMO set. The discussion addressed acting, intimacy coordination and the distinction between what happens for a camera and life outside a production. It placed her experience within a broader conversation about screen work.
Her 2025 Kasbah interview returned to the arts that shaped her and to smaller pleasures. Music, sunshine, a good conversation and the mood of a day all mattered in her answer about happiness. Alongside the professional story, she described enjoyment as something found in ordinary moments.
Portraits
