Portraying one of the leading Nazis and architects of the Holocaust comes with all sorts of challenges, responsibilities and concerns for actors. Just ask Martin Müller, the German actor who plays SS leader Heinrich Himmler, known as the chief implementer of the Nazis’ so-called “Final Solution,” in writer-director Felix Randau‘s I Is Another (Ich Ist ein Anderer), which world premieres on Friday, Aug. 7 in the Piazza Grande program of the 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.
Set in 1952, the film stars Claes Bang as Felix Kersten, the former massage therapist to Himmler, who gets ambushed by journalist Hedda (Valerie Pachner). Kersten claims to have helped thousands of concentration camp prisoners to freedom during the Nazi era by using his influence with Himmler, but Hedda has her doubts and wants to prove he is making himself look like a hero that he really isn’t.
Casting the role of Himmler proved to be the production’s toughest challenge. “The only part that was really hard to cast was Himmler,” Randau tells THR. “I was looking for someone who could play a weasel kind of guy, but it was really, really tough.” He asked some actors about the role and got a less-than-enthusiastic reception. “They accused me of providing a stage for an evil guy like Himmler. I think that is really ridiculous and a big mistake because evil is a part of creation. If you ignore or neglect it, it will grow in the dark, and that’s what’s happening here in Germany, as we can all see.”
