diff --git a/src/datasets/features/image.py b/src/datasets/features/image.py
index fecc2fc5ccd..cb746b9219d 100644
--- a/src/datasets/features/image.py
+++ b/src/datasets/features/image.py
@@ -215,6 +215,7 @@ def cast_storage(self, storage: Union[pa.StringArray, pa.StructArray, pa.ListArr
         The Arrow types that can be converted to the Image pyarrow storage type are:
 
         - `pa.string()` - it must contain the "path" data
+        - `pa.large_string()` - it must contain the "path" data (will be cast to string if possible)
         - `pa.binary()` - it must contain the image bytes
         - `pa.struct({"bytes": pa.binary()})`
         - `pa.struct({"path": pa.string()})`
@@ -229,6 +230,15 @@ def cast_storage(self, storage: Union[pa.StringArray, pa.StructArray, pa.ListArr
             `pa.StructArray`: Array in the Image arrow storage type, that is
                 `pa.struct({"bytes": pa.binary(), "path": pa.string()})`.
         """
+        if pa.types.is_large_string(storage.type):
+            try:
+                storage = storage.cast(pa.string())
+            except pa.ArrowInvalid as e:
+                raise ValueError(
+                    f"Failed to cast large_string to string for Image feature. "
+                    f"This can happen if string values exceed 2GB. "
+                    f"Original error: {e}"
+                ) from e
         if pa.types.is_string(storage.type):
             bytes_array = pa.array([None] * len(storage), type=pa.binary())
             storage = pa.StructArray.from_arrays([bytes_array, storage], ["bytes", "path"], mask=storage.is_null())
diff --git a/tests/features/test_image.py b/tests/features/test_image.py
index 68e6f4b91cc..136b7ee9f6b 100644
--- a/tests/features/test_image.py
+++ b/tests/features/test_image.py
@@ -320,6 +320,18 @@ def test_dataset_cast_to_image_features(shared_datadir, build_data):
     assert isinstance(item["image"], PIL.Image.Image)
 
 
+def test_dataset_cast_to_image_features_polars(shared_datadir):
+    import PIL.Image
+
+    pl = pytest.importorskip("polars")
+    image_path = str(shared_datadir / "test_image_rgb.jpg")
+    df = pl.DataFrame({"image_path": [image_path]})
+    dataset = Dataset.from_polars(df)
+    item = dataset.cast_column("image_path", Image())[0]
+    assert item.keys() == {"image_path"}
+    assert isinstance(item["image_path"], PIL.Image.Image)
+
+
 @require_pil
 def test_dataset_concatenate_image_features(shared_datadir):
     # we use a different data structure between 1 and 2 to make sure they are compatible with each other
diff --git a/tests/test_download_manager.py b/tests/test_download_manager.py
index 08eb77366c1..457bd9de49b 100644
--- a/tests/test_download_manager.py
+++ b/tests/test_download_manager.py
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ def test_download_manager_delete_extracted_files(xz_file):
     assert extracted_path == dl_manager.extracted_paths[xz_file]
     extracted_path = Path(extracted_path)
     parts = extracted_path.parts
-    # import pdb; pdb.set_trace()
+
     assert parts[-1] == hash_url_to_filename(str(xz_file), etag=None)
     assert parts[-2] == extracted_subdir
     assert extracted_path.exists()