At the battle of Solferino Joseph von Trotta, a lieutenant in the Slovenian infantry, is wounded while saving the life of the young Austrian Emperor Franz-Joseph I. The Emperor rewards him by elevating him in society to a position quite out of keeping with his social rank, and which entirely alienates him from his farming background: Joseph gets promoted to the rank of captain, and is made a member of the nobility. Years later Joseph von Trotta accidentally finds a description of the battle that changed his life in a text-book belonging to his son Franz. Enraged at the over-emotional, patriotic and sentimental way in which the Emperor's rescue at the hands of "the Hero of Solferino" is depicted, he lodges a complaint at the Imperial Court.
Max von Sydow
Tilman Günther
Charlotte Rampling
Claude Rich
Jean-Louis Richard
Julia Stemberger
Gert Voss
Friedrich von Thun
Ernst Stankovski
Michael Schönborn
Fritz Muliar
Friedrich W. Bauschulte
Alexander Strobele
Karlheinz Hackl
Dagmar Koller
Elena Sofia Ricci
Franz Tscherne
Miguel Herz-Kestranek