‘I Is Another’ Review: Claes Bang as Himmler’s Therapist

The latest film showcasing Claes Bang, the Danish actor celebrated for his breakout role in The Square, has landed with critics taking particular note of his performance. The project, titled ‘I Is Another’, positions Bang as Felix Kersten, a figure whose real-life story proves stranger than fiction: a massage therapist who gained the trust of one of the Nazi regime’s most notorious figures, Heinrich Himmler.

Reviews are pointing to Bang’s portrayal as the film’s defining asset, with early notices describing his work as “impeccable.” For those who have followed his career since the Palme d’Or-winning satire that made him a festival darling, this role represents another sharp turn into morally complex territory. Kersten was no ordinary practitioner; he parlayed his access to Himmler into a campaign to save thousands of lives, and even harbored ambitions of a Nobel Peace Prize.

A Life Stranger Than Fiction

The historical Kersten was a Finnish-born physiotherapist who treated the SS chief beginning in 1939. Using his unique position - Himmler reportedly relied on him for relief from chronic stomach pain - Kersten allegedly influenced the Nazi leader on humanitarian matters. Accounts credit him with persuading Himmler to release concentration camp prisoners and to countermand orders for mass deportations. His later efforts to negotiate with Western Allies, alongside figures like Count Folke Bernadotte, would lead to nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, a fact that underscores the audacious scope of his life.

The review focuses squarely on how Bang navigates this contradiction. The actor, known for a magnetic screen presence that can shift from charm to menace in a single glance, appears to have found fertile ground in Kersten’s double life. The character walks a razor’s edge, simultaneously serving a genocidal leader while attempting to undermine his plans. It is a performance built on restraint and precision rather than grand gestures, a choice that fits the film’s reportedly tense, psychological tone.

A Shift From The Square

Bang’s career since his international breakthrough has been marked by a deliberate avoidance of easy repeats. The Square saw him play an arrogant museum curator whose life unravels in a series of absurdist humiliations. Here, the stakes are incomparably higher, but the underlying theme of a man trapped by his own compromises remains. The acclaim for ‘I Is Another’ suggests that he has once again found a role that leverages his ability to portray sophisticated, deeply flawed individuals without ever asking the audience to fully forgive them.

The film’s focus on Kersten’s later ambitions is particularly noteworthy. The idea of a man who spent years in Himmler’s inner circle, who witnessed the machinery of the Holocaust firsthand, then seeking international recognition for his rescue efforts, raises uncomfortable questions about motive and legacy. The review reportedly engages with these contradictions head-on, treating Kersten not as a simple hero or villain, but as a man operating within impossible circumstances, sometimes for noble ends, sometimes for his own reputation.

One Man’s Fractured Conscience

The title itself, ‘I Is Another,’ hints at the film’s central theme of fractured identity. It speaks to the psychological toll of living a lie, of presenting one face to a monster and another to the world. Bang’s performance is said to embody this split with astonishing clarity, capturing the quiet moments of doubt and calculation that define Kersten’s existence. The film appears less interested in the broad strokes of historical events than in the intimate, unsettling portrait of a man who made survival - his own and others’ - a daily negotiation with evil.

For audiences familiar with the Second World War canon, this story will feel fresh precisely because it lacks easy moral clarity. Kersten was not a resistance fighter in any conventional sense. He was a man who used the system against itself, leveraging physical intimacy and personal loyalty in one of the darkest corridors of power. By all accounts, Bang’s performance ensures that the film never lets the audience settle into comfortable judgment, instead forcing them to sit with the messy reality of a man who saved thousands, but not without cost.

As of now, release details beyond the review remain scarce, with no official runtime or full casting list yet confirmed. What is clear is that the film has already ignited conversation, positioning itself as a must-see for those interested in historical complexity and a masterclass in controlled acting. Bang, who has never shied away from difficult material, has delivered a performance that critics are calling the film’s impeccable centerpiece, cementing his status as one of Europe’s most formidable leading men.

Source: Variety