Locarno-bound drama “I Is Another” releases trailer ahead of Felix Kersten biopic premiere

A new trailer for Felix Randau’s World War II drama “I Is Another” has been released ahead of the film’s world premiere at this week’s Locarno Film Festival, Deadline reported on Aug. 4. The project stars Claes Bang as Felix Kersten, who is described in the film as the massage therapist associated with Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler, and the movie centers on the conflicting historical accounts surrounding Kersten’s conduct during World War Two.

Deadline said the trailer was revealed exclusively as the festival premiere approaches, positioning the film as a character-driven drama built around contested testimony and interpretation rather than a single definitive narrative. The reporting framed the story around “double-dealing” elements of Kersten’s wartime role, though the film’s approach also reflects that his actions and motives have been debated by historians and contemporaries.

The film is described by Deadline as drawing on the ways Kersten’s late-life claims about what he did during the war were received and challenged, with the central premise shaped by the tension between different versions of events. Deadline’s summary indicated that the drama explores the boundary between claims Kersten made and how those claims were viewed by others, including people who believed he acted one way or another.

Claes Bang’s casting as Heinrich Himmler’s massage therapist puts a lead performance at the center of the film’s contested subject matter, while the trailer’s release gives audiences a first look at how the movie intends to dramatize the moral and historical uncertainty surrounding Kersten. Deadline did not provide additional plot specifics beyond the framing of the historical debate in its description of the film.

The Locarno Film Festival premiere is the first major stop for the movie as it enters the wider festival and media cycle. With the trailer now in circulation, festival-goers and the broader film press will have an opportunity to assess how the production handles sensitive wartime history, including how it stages the idea of disputed accounts rather than offering a single settled interpretation.

As with other festival-bound historical dramas, the project’s public reception will likely turn on whether audiences perceive the film as clarifying, dramatizing, or complicating the documentary record. Deadline’s reporting emphasized that the drama is built around “conflicting accounts” of Kersten, meaning questions about evidence and accuracy may become part of the post-screening discussion at the festival.

The film’s next step after Locarno will depend on festival programming outcomes and distribution plans, but the trailer release marks the beginning of its public rollout period. For now, the key practical milestone is the premiere itself at Locarno, where the film will be screened before wider release.

No additional details about release date, distribution, or runtime were included in Deadline’s summary beyond the fact that the film is heading to a world premiere at Locarno this week. Additional cast, production credits, and the festival schedule were not specified in the materials provided for this report.