The Remarkable Life of Ibelin

Mats Steen, a Norwegian man born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, became increasingly unable to participate in everyday activities. As a result, he spent most of his time playing video games, particularly World of Warcraft. His parents worried it would cause him to miss out on life, unaware of what he was doing in the game.

Towards the end of his life, he started a blog about living with his disease. When he died at the age of 25, he left behind the password for his family. They used the blog to announce his death, which led to dozens of people replying. The film then tells the story of his life in the World of Warcraft guild Starlight — where he played the character Ibelin Redmoore — through animations based on the game interspersed with retrospectives from his guild members, family, and excerpts from his blog.

As Ibelin, Mats kept his real life identity and his medical condition a secret, worried that other guild members would treat him differently if they knew. To help hide his identity, he refused to communicate in any other form than text, but he still developed close relationships with other guild members. He was perceived as a reliable friend they could share their problems with.

Mats’ condition worsened over time, and it became harder for him to play the game. He appeared more agitated, causing drama regarding his relationships in the guild, eventually leading to him lashing out at one of the guild members. As Mats’ condition kept deteriorating, he developed severe breathing difficulties and had to be hospitalised. A friend from the guild became concerned regarding Mats’ absence, and confronted him about it. Mats decided to tell that friend about his condition, and expressed his fear of other people finding out. His friend encouraged Mats to tell the other guild members, and Mats decided to apologise to the guild about his previous behaviour. He later shared his blog with them.

Eventually, Mats died due to his muscular dystrophy. Five guild members from abroad attended his funeral in Oslo. The rest gathered in the game, which became a yearly tradition. The film ends with a shot of his tombstone, which reads Mats "Ibelin" Steen.

Ibelin premiered on 19 January 2024 in the World Documentary Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival where it won 2 awards, the Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary and The Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary. Shortly after, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film.^[3] The film continued to screen at festivals such as the Chicago Critics Film Festival in May and the New Zealand International Film Festival in August, with the title expanded to The Remarkable Life of Ibelin.^[4][5] It has been selected for the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024, under the World Cinema section.^[6]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 50 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10.^[7] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[8] Variety praised the film, stating "It’s a world unto itself, and a glowing example of how moviemaking — like a person’s digital footprint — can be a form of immortality that soothes even the most devastating loss."^[9] Other reviews were also extremely positive.^{[2][10][11][12]} Cineeuropa found that Ree "ends up with a film that’s not about death; rather, it’s about friendship, love and life."^[13]

• The Remarkable Life of Ibelin at IMDb