Sissi: The Young Empress

Sissi - Die junge Kaiserin

In the second installment of Ernst Marischka's trilogy, the young Empress Sissi is enchanted by Hungary, a country she has never visited, but feels an affinity with. The Hungarians are deeply affected by Sissi's love for their country, and want to crown Emporer Franz Joseph and Sissi as King and Queen of Hungary. Sissi then gives birth to a daughter, but her happiness is broken, when her mother in law, Archduchess Sophie, decides to nourish the baby herself, and takes it away from her.

Sissi runs away to her family in Bavaria. Franz Joseph follows her, and takes her on a honeymoon in the Austrian Alps. Sissi's mother, Duchess Ludovika, goes to Vienna to implore her sister, Archduchess Sophie, to give the baby back to Sissi.

The Sissi trilogy presents through heartwarming storytelling and undeniable visual beauty a Cinderella story in scrupulous detail, in three chronologically biographical films that, together, take nearly six hours to watch.

Nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.