Felix Randau Says Claes Bang’s Performance Fits Felix Kersten’s Power in Locarno Premiere of ‘I Is Another’

German director Felix Randau brought his post-World War Two drama I Is Another to the Locarno Film Festival this evening, using the Piazza Grande screening as a backdrop for remarks about why he cast Claes Bang as Felix Kersten, the real-life massage therapist tied to Heinrich Himmler’s inner circle. In an interview connected to the festival premiere, Randau said Bang’s temperament and command of the character were central to capturing the particular kind of leverage Kersten possessed during the Nazi era.

The film centers on Kersten as he navigates relationships with the SS founder and Holocaust architect Himmler, a connection that Kersten later described in his memoirs. Deadline reported that Kersten’s writings depict him using influence over Himmler to affect events during the war, including a thwarted plan for mass killings, while the story frames how those claims intersect with the aftermath of the conflict.

Randau said the casting choice also reflected a specific acting dynamic he wanted onscreen, describing Bang’s ability to deliver lines in a way that persuades even as it unsettles. He told interviewers that if Claes (Bang) tells you a lie, “you want to believe him,” a characterization Deadline tied to Randau’s view of Kersten as a figure whose credibility could shape outcomes.

Locarno’s Piazza Grande is known for large outdoor festival screenings, and the premiere adds to the film’s visibility ahead of its broader release cycle. Deadline’s description of the evening’s appearance places Randau and the film in the international festival arena, where audience reception often hinges on how films handle historical subject matter, especially when real people and controversial accounts are at the center of the narrative.

The film’s subject matter also carries an added burden, given the nature of Kersten’s story as it is presented through memoir recollections and dramatized performance. Randau’s comments, as reported, underscore that the production is not only about depicting historical institutions, but also about how personal influence and intimate access can operate, including through a character whose authority is grounded in relationships rather than rank.

While the report focused on Randau’s casting rationale and Bang’s portrayal, it also indicates that I Is Another engages with contested historical legacy. Kersten’s accounts, as framed in the film’s setup, are tied to claims of intervention, which remain sensitive terrain in any dramatization of Nazi-era power structures and postwar memory.

As the film continues its festival run, the next steps will likely involve further press screenings, cast interviews, and additional festival coverage that may clarify how the production situates Kersten’s memoirs and the Himmler relationship within the film’s broader historical timeline. For audiences attending Locarno’s Piazza Grande premiere, the immediate takeaway from Randau’s remarks was that Bang was chosen to embody Kersten’s distinctive persuasive force, not simply to portray a historical figure in period costume.

In the meantime, the Locarno premiere places I Is Another in a prominent cultural setting just as film journalists and critics continue to scrutinize how cinema handles Holocaust-adjacent histories, including the ethics of representing individuals who described influence within Nazi machinery. Randau’s emphasis on acting that convinces even when it deceives indicates that the film’s dramatic engine is built on the tension between claimed power and the viewer’s willingness to accept it.