German writer-director Felix Randau has created a film titled I Is Another examining the life of Felix Kersten, a massage therapist who served as a personal attendant to Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler. The project emerged after French producers approached Randau with the concept, suggesting that filmmaker Steven Spielberg would have made a movie about Kersten rather than Oskar Schindler had he known about the figure. The film, premiering at the Locarno film festival on 7 August, features Danish actor Claes Bang in the lead role.
Kersten built a postwar legend around claims that he had used his influence over Himmler to rescue countless Jews and concentration camp prisoners from deportation and death. A biography by French journalist Joseph Kessel, titled The Man With the Miraculous Hands, reinforced this narrative, suggesting Kersten had enabled entire populations to escape Nazi persecution. However, Randau’s research uncovered evidence contradicting this account. He discovered Kersten’s SS membership card in a Berlin archive and found correspondence in which Kersten asked permission to wear an SS uniform publicly, undermining his later claims of being an anti-Nazi. Randau also identified numerous forged documents in Kersten’s records.
The film depicts Kersten during a train journey to Oslo where he pursues recognition, confronted by a fictional investigative journalist played by Valerie Pachner who suspects his deceptions. While some records regarding Kersten’s alleged Swedish intelligence connections remain classified, Randau concluded that Kersten likely saved some lives but exaggerated the scale substantially. The director characterizes Kersten as a narcissist who craved heroic status and began manipulating circumstances after the German defeat at Stalingrad in 1943.
Randau notes that Kersten’s primary value to Himmler lay in his therapeutic skill, providing relief from the SS chief’s severe intestinal problems, earning him the nickname “magic Buddha.” The filmmaker approached the project with intent to portray historical figures as complex humans rather than caricatures, which initially complicated casting decisions. Martin Müller ultimately played Himmler. Randau draws parallels between the historical period and contemporary issues regarding shared truth and information manipulation.
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