The Netflix film The Remarkable Life of Ibelin captures the power of video games in a way that I have rarely seen since 2017’s Dad of Light. The subject of the documentary film, directed by Benjamin Ree, is Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer who died at age 25. When his parents mourned him, they did so thinking that his life was led alone, in his room, without deep connections.
Born with a degenerative muscular disease, much of Mats’ adult life was spent in his room, playing video games on his computer. The film walks the audience through Mats’ life from childhood into adulthood, exploring his family, his joy, and the complexities of living life with a disability that causes an increasing lack of mobility. After director Ree sets the stage to introduce the audience to Mats, he shifts the story to tell, well, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin.
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Named Ibelin in-game, Mats led a virtual life filled with deep friendships fostered in the MMORPG World of Warcraft. After his passing, his parents used his password to his personal blog to see the life that Mats was truly living with the friends he connected with virtually but left a lasting impact on.
At this point in the film, Ree decides to let Mats’s words tell the story of his life. Reading passages from his blog adds more context to the documentary’s interviews, which feature stories told by his friends and guild members. The film presents a journey through Mats’ adventurous life online as Ibelin and, more importantly, those he met along the way and how they remembered him.
Using World of Warcraft to reconstruct animations that replay moments of Mats’ gameplay presents audiences with a picture of a young man who lived a life far from isolation. In doing so, the film takes its time to outline the importance of community, even virtually, and how it works to transcend traditional ideas of what relationships can be.
The documentary also does one crucial thing. While the film focuses on Mats and how he used the game to have a life outside his wheelchair, it’s not about his disability. The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is told through stories, memories, and Mats’ journal entries and blog. Through this, we see lives run parallel. Where Mats looked for connection as Ibelin because of his limitations when it came to travel and work, others used their guild and their characters to close connective gaps in their own lives, too. Whether it’s a mother and son coming together for their first hug. Or it’s just a girl opening up to a crush. There is depth here.
Seeing the life that Ibelin led and understanding his impact on those around him is impactful. If there is one film to watch about the ripples of joy and love that gaming can foster, this is it. Often, conversations about community in video games are limited to what builds around a popular streamer or esports beyond that.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is about grief and loss, but it’s also a celebration of a life well-lived. Currently, gaming can be hostile, especially if you only engage with people through social media. But the reality is that gaming’s ability to connect people makes it such an astonishingly important cultural tool. The MMO genre specifically has given people lives and connections they wouldn’t have found otherwise.
There are many reasons to preserve video games and to hold onto game chat archives, and The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is one of them. To be able to tell his story after death and to allow his parents to see into the well-loved life he led is beautiful, but it also pushes the audience to understand that online connections are real-life connections. The beauty of multiplayer games, specifically MMOs, is that they unite people across countries, ages, and identities.
When I first sat down to watch The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, I half expected the film to be the traditional inspiration porn we often get with documentaries about disabled people. But I was wrong. The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is never a film about disability; it’s a film about finding your place in the world. Sometimes, that world is Azeroth.
That said, the documentary also highlights Mats’ flaws: how, as Ibelin, he was known as a womanizer in the game, how the walls he built kept others too far away, and how he almost broke up his Guild. Mats’ life is on display in all of its complications, but that only accentuates the depth of relationships that Mats had throughout his life. The documentary is an emotional exploration of friendship and life and an avenue to grieve for those involved.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is beautiful in just about every way. While the film may immortalize Mats Steen and his World of Warcraft persona, it also works as a pathway for parents, family members, and those disconnected from gaming to see the cultural and positive power it can have. Ibelin was one life, but those he met and loved are many.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is streaming now on Netflix.
