I Is Another (2026) - Felix Randau's De-Language Film News

When Martin Müller first got the call to play Heinrich Himmler, one of history's most notorious figures, the weight of the role was immediate. The German actor steps into the uniform of the SS leader in I Is Another, a historical drama that opens in limited release today, August 7, 2026. Directed by Felix Randau, the film clocks in at 93 minutes and places its focus not on the battlefields of World War II, but on a tense, morally ambiguous encounter in post-war Europe.

The story unfolds in 1952, aboard a train journey to Oslo. A journalist, Hedda Wohmann, and her husband find themselves face-to-face with a man who claims he saved thousands of lives during the war. That man is Felix Kersten, played by Claes Bang, a real-life physiotherapist who treated Himmler and later asserted that he used his access to influence the Nazi leader's decisions, potentially sparing countless prisoners. The film's core tension rests on a simple, unsettling question: was Kersten a genuine savior, or a man who retroactively polished his own legacy? As the train rolls on, the line between hero and opportunist begins to blur, and Müller's Himmler - though not the central figure - looms over the narrative as the ghost whose choices defined everything.

A different kind of historical pressure

Müller, known for his work in German theater and television, admits that taking on the role came with a specific kind of burden. Unlike playing a purely fictional antagonist, Himmler is a figure whose real actions led to the deaths of millions. The actor explained in production notes that he approached the part not as an exercise in mimicry, but as an attempt to understand how a man could rationalize such systematic cruelty. "I did not want to make him a monster," Müller said, via the film's press materials. "Monsters are easy to dismiss. What frightens me is how ordinary he was in his habits, how bureaucratic his evil was. That is what I tried to bring to the screen."

The role required Müller to strip away any theatrical flourish. Himmler, often described by contemporaries as fastidious and cold rather than charismatic, presented a particular challenge. "There is no scene where I get to deliver a grand speech," he noted. "His power was in paperwork, in procedures, in the quiet certainty of his ideology. That is harder to act than shouting." Randau, the director, pushed Müller to stay physically restrained, focusing instead on small gestures - the way Himmler held a pen, how he avoided direct eye contact with Kersten, the precise patience of a man who scheduled genocide like a business meeting.

The real story behind the train

The film centers on Kersten, a Dutch-born physician who became Himmler's personal therapist during the war. Kersten's treatments - massages and physical manipulation - offered Himmler relief from chronic stomach pain, and over time, Kersten gained unusual access. After the war, he claimed he used this position to extract concessions that saved concentration camp inmates, including a notable late-war effort that possibly prevented the destruction of certain camps. I Is Another dramatizes a fictionalized encounter on a 1952 train, where Kersten's past catches up with him in the form of Hedda (Valerie Pachner), a journalist probing the veracity of his story.

The film's title suggests a philosophical inquiry into identity and self-deception. Kersten, as played by Bang, is a man who may have done good for selfish reasons, or may be telling a story that has grown more comfortable with time. Müller sees his own role as the catalyst for this uncertainty. "Himmler is the reason Kersten's story is so hard to believe," Müller said. "Because we know what Himmler did, we question anyone who worked beside him. That doubt is the engine of the film."

An ensemble built on unease

The cast around Müller adds layers of tension. Valerie Pachner, known for her intense dramatic roles, plays Hedda as a woman unwilling to accept convenient answers. Markus Meyer appears as Norbert Masur, a representative of the World Jewish Congress who also had real dealings with Himmler, adding further historical weight to the proceedings. Susanne Wuest plays Irmgard Kersten, Felix's wife, whose loyalty to her husband's version of events is tested. Timocin Ziegler and Michael Fuith round out a cast that the director assembled for its ability to convey discomfort in confined spaces - a necessary skill, given the film's train-bound setting.

For Müller, the most revealing part of the process came in the quieter moments between takes. "We would sit in the dining car setting, in period costumes, and the air was heavy," he recalled. "No one joked around before a scene. It did not feel like a costume drama. It felt like a responsibility." That sensibility seems to have carried into the finished film, which has been described by early trade screenings as a character-driven thriller that avoids easy moral conclusions.

Opening this weekend

I Is Another enters theaters today, August 7, 2026, with a runtime of 93 minutes. Its release date places it in a crowded summer season, but its intimate scope and historical rigor may appeal to audiences looking for a counterpoint to blockbuster spectacle. There are no big action sequences here - no explosions, no sweeping battlefield shots. The drama lives in dialogue, in glances, and in the weight of unasked questions.

For Müller, the film's message reaches beyond history. He hopes viewers leave asking themselves a similar question to the one at its heart. "We all tell stories about our own lives," he said. "We edit, we emphasize, we forget. This film is about how history is just a series of those stories, and how hard it is to find the truth in the middle of them."

Source: The Hollywood Reporter