EXCLUSIVE: Felix Randau’s post-World War Two drama I Is Another, starring Claes Bang as Heinrich Himmler’s controversial massage therapist Felix Kersten, world premieres at the Locarno Film Festival this week and Deadline can reveal the trailer.
The historical drama delves into the conflicting accounts around Kersten’s conduct during World War Two.
The late physiotherapist claimed he used his relationship with Himmler to save the lives of 60,000 Jewish people in the final days of the war and also claimed he had used his influence to help stop a plan to deport the entire Dutch population to Eastern Europe.
His accounts have been challenged since and mystery still swirls around the truth of what really happened.
Randau delves into Kersten’s story through an imagined 1952 train trip from Germany to Oslo, where the therapist was hoping to receive the Nobel Prize.
On route, he is accosted by journalist Hedda (Valerie Pachner) who demands a one-on-one interview with Kersten, during which she presents evidence suggesting he was far from being on the right side of history. A psychological game of cat and mouse ensues.
Randau was last in Locarno with his 2017 film Iceman about the fight for survival of a Neolithic clan in the Ötztal Alps more than 5,300 years ago.
I Is Another is produced by Ostlicht Filmproduktion (Marcel Lenz, Claritta Kratochwil) in co-production with WEGA Film (Veit Heiduschka, Christian Bachmann, Julia Heiduschka), in collaboration with Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, BR, and Arte.
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