Shadow (Polish: Cień) is a 1956 Polish film directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz. It was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.^[1]

The plot involves a Rashōmon-like investigation into the life of a man who has been found dead after having been hurled from a train. As security agents, police and a medical examiner piece together his identity, three accounts emerge: one set during World War II, one in the immediate aftermath of the war, and one in contemporary Poland. In each account, the victim seems to have been a mysterious, ambiguous presence, of shifting loyalties and suspicious connections, who set himself against the powers that be.

Critics attacked the film for its depiction of a world rife with secret agents and hidden enemies—a favorite Stalinist theme—while the film seems, rather, to demonstrate how heroism and villainy are often matters of point of view and timing.

• Zygmunt Kęstowicz as Knyszyn
• Adolf Chronicki as Karbowski
• Emil Karewicz as Jasiczka
• Ignacy Machowski as Shadow
• Tadeusz Jurasz as Mikuła
• Bolesław Płotnicki as Railwayman
• Bohdan Ejmont as Officer
• Marian Łącz as Stefan
• Zdzisław Szymański as Peasant
• Halina Przybylska as Village Woman
• Antoni Jurasz as Lt. Antoni
• Wiesław Gołas as Underground Soldier
• Barbara Połomska as Stefan's Friend
• Stanisław Mikulski as Blonde
• Roman Kłosowski as Witold

• Cinema of Poland
• List of Polish language films

• Shadow at IMDb