Karl Emil Franzos

Judith Trachtenberg

In the nineteenth century a young Jewish woman living in the part of Poland controlled by Austria, meets an Austrian Count at a ball held by one of her father's business associates. After he rescues her from the unwanted attentions of a Polish army officer, they fall in love.

The President

By his father’s deathbed, the young Karl Victor von Sendlingen swears that he will never make the same mistake his father made in his youth: to marry a girl beneath his own station. The promise proves to have fatal consequences when Karl Victor falls in love with a young governess, whom he impregnates but refuses to marry as this would break his oath to his father. Many years later, he is a highly respected president of the court about to deal out judgment to a young woman who has killed her new-born child. The young woman turns out to be his own illegitimate daughter, and Karl Victor is suddenly faced with the choice of doing his professional duty or making amends for his past misdeeds. (Stumfilm.dk)