“The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” - Documentary Review
It is one of the sad realities of life that parents will never fully know their children, and vice-versa. Much of Mike Mills’ filmography is based on the idea that parents and children, despite sharing DNA, are essentially strangers to one another. The Remarkable Life of Ibelin isn’t directed by Mills, but there are similar themes at play in this documentary. After picking up two awards at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin comes to Netflix on October 25 to share its heartfelt story about the internet’s ability to create community that transcends anything the real world has to offer.
courtesy of Netflix
To the people who exist in the offline space, Mats Steen goes by Mats. To his friends, his family, and people he meets in his day-to-day life, Mats is a young man with a muscle disease called duchenne muscular dystrophy. It’s a genetic disease that shortens a person’s life expectancy, with most people who have the disease not living beyond thirty. As Mats’ muscular abilities began to decline, his parents, Trude and Robert, bought him various video game systems. In the final years of his life, Mats was logging thousands of hours of gameplay. When Mats passed away at the age of twenty-five, his parents worried that all of the time he’d spent playing video games took away from his ability to make connections with people. However, when they posted on his blog about Mats’ death, they were overwhelmed by all the emails they received from people around the world who got to know Mats through gaming and who were profoundly impacted by his loss.
To people who don’t understand or play video games, they seem inherently isolating. A lot of times, someone is sitting alone on their couch playing a game. The Remarkable Life of Ibelin shows how gaming transcends this solitary experience. The game Mats played most often was World of Warcraft. It’s a massive, multiplayer, online role-playing game where players explore a magical open world. They can fight monsters, complete quests, and befriend non-player characters and fellow at-home gamers. It’s in this world that Mats, known to his fellow gamers as Ibelin, found an immense source of happiness. On his blog, Mats wrote, “It’s not a screen. It’s a gateway to wherever your heart desires.” In the magical world of this game, he made friends, fell in love, and experienced aspects of the human experience his parents believed couldn’t exist online.
courtesy of Netflix
Much of The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is re-enactmenets, but not the normal documentary recreations. World of Warcraft keeps a log of every minute detail of gameplay, so the filmmaking team of The Remarkable Life of Ibelin was able to show the life Mats led with his friends and the adventures they went on. It’s quite a feat, and a spin of sorts on home movies. The documentary does have its fair share of camcorder footage of Mats’ childhood, but much of his life played out in this virtual world, and the film respects that. The friendships he forged online are no different than the ones that are formed in person. He listened to the woes of his friends and offered advice, but in the virtual space, he was worried about being judged for his diagnosis and didn’t openly share it. When he passed away, it was a shock to many of his friends that Mats was dealing with a muscle disease.
courtesy of Netflix
When Mats’ family begins to receive emails after his passing, it’s obvious that they had no comprehension of what Mats was doing online. Borrowing from the film’s title, the most remarkable thing is that it’s rare that someone gets to understand the impact they have on other people. Granted, Mats likely didn’t know the extent to which his kindness and friendship affected the people he played World of Warcraft with, but the outpouring of love and support after his passing gave his parents a peek into that world. It’s very easy to be caught up in our own lives. Our own troubles, wins, losses, and mundanity are at the forefront of our minds. We don’t tell people enough that we are thankful for their impact on our lives, and that’s what The Remarkable Life of Ibelin wants to encourage. Call your friends and loved ones. Tell them how they’ve made a difference in your life. Remember the stranger who showed you kindness that you’ll never see again and be that stranger to someone else. The Remarkable Life of Ibelin shows the power of human connection, even when it’s digitized.
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