New German film I Is Another Debuts at Locarno, Reexamining Felix Kersten's Legacy

Director Felix Randau’s drama I Is Another, starring Claes Bang as Felix Kersten, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, probing the massage therapist’s ambiguous wartime role.

After rejecting a French miniseries that would have portrayed Felix Kersten as a wartime superhero, German writer-director Felix Randau created I Is Another, which opened the Piazza Grande section of the 79th Locarno Film Festival on August 7. Set in 1952, the narrative shows a journalist ambushing Kersten and his wife during a train ride, exposing the contested claims that Kersten might have saved lives and even be vying for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The film features Claes Bang as Kersten, Valerie Pachner as the journalist Hedda, Susanne Wuest as Irmgard Kersten, Timocin Ziegler as Hedda’s husband Winfried, and Martin Müller as Heinrich Himmler, with Sebastian Thaler as cinematographer and Joana Scrinzi as editor. Randau emphasizes that the story explores multiple perspectives on truth, mirroring today’s social-media-driven doubts about authenticity. He notes Kersten’s mix of narcissism, opportunism, and genuine rescue efforts, while acknowledging that many scenes are drawn from Kersten’s own autobiography and are therefore “his truth.” Beta Cinema is responsible for the film’s international distribution.