Benjamin Ree’s The Remarkable Life of Ibelin relates a heartbreaking story in its first 10 minutes. Mats Steen, a young boy from Norway, lived a mostly happy life until being diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic disorder that prevents muscles from working correctly. He would grow up solitary and confined to a wheelchair, with his computer the only connection to the world outside his home, before passing away at 25. Mats’s parents, Robert and Trude, mourn the life that their son never got to have, but it’s not until they gain access to his computer and use his blog to announce his passing that they realize their son had an online life they never knew, all stemming from his dedication to World of Warcraft.
There are people for whom what happens in the subsequent 90 minutes of the documentary will come as a surprise, and Ree plays it like it is, but it’s hard to gauge how large a swath of people that is in the year 2024. Because for anyone who’s had their thumb on the technological pulse at any point in the 21st century, the fact that Mats—playing as his big, burly, blond avatar, Ibelin—had a wide circle of friends and enjoyed beautiful experiences in WoW is almost a given.
Even for those who’ve never played WoW, the reality that online experiences can be just as valuable and beautiful as IRL ones is baked into the fabric of modern life, let alone the wide range of visual media exploring that concept. Think Spike Jonze’s Her, Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One, South Park’s now-classic “Make Love, Not Warcraft” episode, even Catfish, in both its big- and small-screen incarnations. Which makes the way that The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, after its initial rundown of the tragedy of Mats’s all-too-brief life, settles into a series of protracted vignettes showing off Mats’s experiences within WoW somewhat disappointing. The documentary becomes a sort of digital eulogy that frames online-only relationships as a novel concept, even though there are now full-grown adults who’ve only ever had such relationships.
The film may not be rich with new insights, but it’s still a tender, empathetic journey through Mats’s virtual life, with additional perspective offered by the real people playing the characters Mats cared for the most. Aided by a narrated version of Mats’s own blog, and machinima artists helping to recreate the reams of WoW chat logs that Mats accumulated over time, we see Mats going on daily runs through Azeroth, investigating mysteries, falling in love, playing mediator between arguing friends, offering advice, and, yes, even slaying a few dragons. The strongest stretch of the film involves Mats helping a guildmate to connect with her autistic son.
There’s considerable emotional truth on display in The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, especially as Mats’s relationships start to get too close for him to hide his disability. The film using WoW itself to tell a full-fledged narrative is uniquely captivating, and it makes the moments where things get bleak and real—particularly the devastating footage of Mats’s guildmates showing up to his funeral—hit even harder. The facts of Mats’s virtual life may not necessarily be news, but it doesn’t make his particular quest through this life less worthy of celebration.
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