Lengua viva

"What I want is to bear the name I was given at birth. Without hiding it, without disguising it, without changing it. Without being afraid of it." She was born Polina, and in France, she became Pauline. A few letters, and everything changes. Upon arriving in Saint-Étienne as a child—just after the fall of the Soviet Union—she became split in two: Polina at home, Pauline at school. Twenty years later, she lives in Montreuil. She has an appointment at the Bobigny courthouse to try to reclaim her name.