Nd0.52Sr0.48MnO3 films have been fabricated by dc magnetron sputtering on single-crystal LaAlO3 (001) and SrTiO3 (011) substrates with additional annealing to relax the lattice strain. Although the Nd0.52Sr0.48MnO3 films were deposited simultaneously on different substrates at the same deposition rate, they differ in thickness by a factor of ? . The observed difference in thickness is explained by the two-dimensional (layer-by-layer) film growth, rather than by a difference in growth rate controlled by the crystalline orientation of the substrate. An analysis of optical and transport properties reveals that the observed anisotropy in the polaron motion is governed by a strong anisotropy in the trapping energy, rather than in polaron formation. It is shown that the deposited Nd0.52Sr0.48MnO3 films exhibit magnetic behavior typical of two-phase magnetic systems and should be regarded as an assembly of interacting magnetic clusters.