The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is a Norwegian documentary that tells the story of Mats Steen, a 25-year-old young man who passed away in 2014 following complications from Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare disorder that causes muscle degeneration. While his family thought he had lived a secluded and lonely life in their basement, barely being able to leave the house, they never realized he had lived a whole other life with a group of friends he made online through the popular game, World of Warcraft. Mats’ World of Warcraft character was named Ibelin, a powerful nobleman who would go on daily runs, took on jobs as a private investigator, and was a flirtatious ladies’ man.
Originally titled Ibelin before being renamed following Netflix’s acquisition, The Remarkable Life of Ibelindebuted at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2024, in the World Documentary Competition. It later went on to win the Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary and The Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary. It is certainly easy to see why, as The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is a moving portrait of friendship, self-identification, and how something as simple as a video game can unite people, partially brought to life with stunning visuals that capture the unique charm of the World of Warcraft video games.
The Duality of Mats and Ibelin
Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer who died at 25 from a degenerative muscular disease, was believed by his parents to have led a lonely life. However, after his passing, they discovered the strong connections he had formed with online friends worldwide, who reached out with messages of support and remembrance.
- Release Date
- October 25, 2024
- Director
- Benjamin Ree
- Runtime
- 103 Minutes
- An inspiring and touching documentary with a great subject.
- An interesting and actually positive look at online communities and friendships.
- The film utilizes animation and video games to great effect.
Duality is at the center of The Remarkable Life of Ibelin. The movie not only looks to highlight Mat’s two lives as himself and as his World of Warcraft character, Ibelin, but the filmmakers also opt for two distinct styles. One is a traditional documentary format, combining interviews, old home movies, and pictures that start the movie, focusing on the point of view of Mats’ family, specifically his parents, Robert and Trude. Then, following emails sent to his parents from Mats’ World of Warcraft community, the film takes the viewer into the young man’s perspective of events.
With over 42,000 pages of Mats’ World of Warcraft gaming logs, the filmmakers recreate his activities in the video game through his character Ibelin, visualized in a stunning recreation of the iconic World of Warcraft graphics. This allows for a nice change of pace from a traditional documentary, giving the movie its unique visual language but also bringing the viewer closer to Mats’ point of view. Despite the graphics of World of Warcraft being animated, these parts are treated just as real as the live-action segments. This is Mats’ story, so it should be done in the world he loved so much and felt the most like his true self.
The movie also has a voice actor, who is reportedly similar to Mats’ voice, reading passages from his blog “Musings of Life.” This gives the viewers a perspective on Mats’ thoughts on the events that they earlier saw from his parents’ point of view. Despite no longer being around, Mats is given a voice in his own story thanks to these blog posts and gaming logs.
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Changing Lives in the World of Warcraft
Be it through an in-game friendship where he helped a fellow player through her own struggles or when he helped a mom and her autistic son become closer through World of Warcraft, Ibelin had a real impact on people in his life. By the time the film ends and the funeral features his two worlds coming together to honor him, one can’t help but get caught up in the emotion.
The animated segments are delightful, taking advantage of the limited mobility of the World of Warcraft graphics to a charming effect. Even if you have never played World of Warcraft, you likely know the game’s unique visuals, so the scenes centered on Ibelin will tickle a certain nostalgia center of the brain for many audience members. It’s astounding how quickly the movie endears viewers to the World of Warcraft; it is hard not to be invested in these character’s adventures, romances, and friendships.
As video games have started to gain more prominence in Hollywood as the basis for big-budget adaptations, it is refreshing to see The Remarkable Life of Ibelin look to capture the unique visual language of the medium. It certainly does a better job of capturing the spirit, visuals, and tone of World of Warcraftbetter than the 2016 Warcraft film did.
As Ibelin, he can become his ideal self. The movie notes every time he logged onto World of Warcraft, his friends would catch Ibelin running, something Mats himself was unable to do. As Ibelin, Mats got to live a life he had always dreamed of, but his body denied him. Ibelin was more than Mats’ Warcraft avatar; he was Mat’s authentic self, a version that existed inside him that he always wished he could show the world.
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Leaving the World a Better Place
There is often a notion that online friends are not “real,” and that to truly know someone and be friends, you need to be able to interact with them physically. Yet, in a post-COVID-19 world where millions of people found themselves isolated and quarantined away from people, online games like World of Warcraft provided people with a sense of community and connection in an uncertain time. While it is hard to look at online fandom spaces and not just think of toxicity, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin reminds us of the value of online spaces. While much has been said about how our increasingly digital world has left us more isolated, it also has had the ability to connect people.
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The film’s true power is tapping into a basic emotion everyone feels: our desire and hope that we matter. Likely, everyone has thought about what will be said about them when they pass on and who will be there to mourn for them. What will be said about us at our funerals? Will anyone miss us? The Remarkable Life of Ibelin lives up to its title, as it shows the truly remarkable life of a seemingly normal man who had such a substantial impact on so many people in profound ways. We should all be so lucky, and if we are honest with ourselves, we are likely at least one important person who somebody will miss. The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is streaming on Netflix below:
Watch on Netflix