The Big Picture

Image via Sundance

Ibelin creatively uses video game animations to depict Mats’ important interactions. The approach offers valuable insight into his life that wouldn’t have been found in any other way. The documentary highlights the positive impact of online friendships and provides an intimate portrait of Mats, including his humor and flaws.

When you were young, your parents probably told you that you should never talk to strangers. There’s a good chance you were also warned never to put any personal information online. It’s safe to assume, then, that sharing personal information with strangers on the Internet was probably a really big no-no.

Thank god Mats Steen and his friends didn’t take that advice.

Ibelin Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer, died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. His parents mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated life, when they started receiving messages from online friends around the world. Release Date March 8, 2024 Director Benjamin Ree Cast Kelsey Ellison , Zoe Croft Runtime 106 minutes

What Is ‘Ibelin’ About?

Who exactly is Mats Steen? The simple answer is that he was an avid gamer with a rare genetic disorder called Duchenne, a disease that rapidly weakens the muscles. The more complex answer is that he was also a brawny, scruffy World of Warcraft character named Ibelin Redwood. Not that his family knew about that last part — or at least not the important aspects. While Mats’ family knew he spent most of his time playing video games, what they didn’t know was that he was playing with people all over the world. People who became friends. People who had their lives changed by Mats.

Mats’ parents state that their biggest fear was that his condition would render him unable to make friends, fall in love, or make an impact on others, and it seemed their biggest fear had come true when Mats passed. It was only when they logged into his blog to share the news of his passing and received a plethora of condolences that they found out how very wrong they were.

‘Ibelin’s Style Is Innovative and Effective
Image via Sundance

Ibelin uses a blend of techniques to tell the story of Mats’ life. Some are relatively standard fare, like talking-head interviews with the family and home video footage. It’s effective, if not a little bland, and the fact that the first 15 minutes rely primarily on both makes for a slow start.

Luckily, things pick up quickly when we get to hear passages directly pulled from the blog Mats wrote during his final days called Musings of life. These journals allow us to dig into who Mats was in his own words, illuminating both his great sense of humor (he drags 80s fashion and says that it’s good he’s in a wheelchair, or else he’d be out “giving his mother a heart attack”) and insecurities (like when he remembers being stared at on a field trip to an amusement park with other disabled kids from his summer camp).

The most effective stylistic choice, however, is also its boldest. Using 42,000 pages of stored information from Mads’ World of Warcraft games in collaboration with a team of animators, many of his most important interactions as Ibelin are recreated. This offers valuable insight, too — a perfect companion piece with his journals. Because the famed detective and nobleman “who makes friends and enemies wherever he goes,” Mats says, is an expansion of who he is. One that allows him to explore different parts of himself — and even just run around without limitations.

Image via Sundance

Mats’ life was enriched by going online, in large part due to the friends he made there from all over the world. But Mats made just as big an impact on their lives. One of the first instances we see of this is with Lisette Roovers, a young woman around Mats’ age. It’s love at first virtual hat steal, with Mats and Lisette — or rather, Ibelin and Rumour — quickly hitting it off, bantering and joking and even sharing a virtual kiss or two (something that flusters and excites Mats just as much as if it had happened in real life). When Lisette’s grades begin to drop due to her obsession with the game and her parents take her computer away, instead of sulking, Mats comes up with a plan: to write a note to her parents calmly persuading them to find another solution. He knows how much this game and these connections mean to their daughter, and cutting her off from it is only going to cause her depression to spiral. The plan works, and the two continue to strengthen their bond, with Lisette even drawing sweet artwork of their characters — a prized possession Mats hangs in his room. Seeing young love blossom in this unorthodox way is beautiful and gives insight into how people across countries can quite literally help save lives with their friendship, even if it’s virtually based.

Another touching example we see is how Mats helped a mother named Xenia-Anni Nielsen connect with her son Mikkel. Xenia-Anni and Mikkel always struggled to communicate, partially due to Mikkel’s autism. When Mats had the simple suggestion to try and talk in the game, their relationship dramatically changed for the better, with Mikkel more easily able to tell Xenia-Anni things he didn’t feel like he could in person — and even give her a virtual hug, something he found deeply uncomfortable in real life. “It was the first time in my life I could feel love and start to understand love,” Mikkel recalls, crediting the game and Mats with helping him gain valuable socialization skills.

Many films about disabled people can quickly fall into inspiration porn territory, elevating the subject to godlike status, erasing their flaws, and sanitizing them to the point of dehumanization. Ibelin refreshingly doesn’t shy away from Mats’ more prickly, difficult moments. Mats has always felt unworthy of love, so he hurts Lisette’s feelings by talking to new girls in the game instead of telling her how he feels about her. When he’s feeling especially insecure and frustrated with his situation, he lashes out at Xenia-Anni and hurts other people in the community, picking fights and sowing division. He isolates himself and insists on suffering alone, refusing to voice chat, video call, or meet with anyone in real life for fear they will find out about his disability and judge or pity him.

But Xenia-Anni takes on the Ibelin role and plays investigator, putting the pieces together when Mats is gone for long periods and figuring out he’s in the hospital. In one of the most affecting moments of the film, Mats breaks down and tells Xenia-Anni about his condition and his fear that he hasn’t mattered to anyone in life. Xenia-Anni quickly reassures him that’s not the case and encourages him to tell the others what’s going on — to let them be there for him the way he’s always there for everyone else.

Upon learning the truth, the community rallies around Mats with warmth and compassion, allowing him to mend some of the dynamics that were fractured when Mats was less than kind. The community is there for Mats through death and even after, with several of his close online friends attending his funeral and hosting a memorial in the game every year.

As someone who lives a good portion of my life chatting on Discord, playing Dungeons & Dragons, and meeting up with friends whom I initially chatted with on Twitter, Ibelin hits close to home and reiterates just how powerful and real online friendships can be. There’s a lot of bleakness and hollowness when it comes to the Internet right now, but in the right hands, it can offer a lot of hope and deep connections, too. Though Mats has unfortunately passed on, he will live on forever in the lives he touched both through the game and now through this touching documentary. Trust me, you’re going to want some tissues for this one.

Ibelin REVIEWIbelin is an effective and creative documentary about the power of online friendships ProsThere are fitting and engaging stylistic choices with the video game animations. The documentary powerfully shows the positive impact online friendships can have. It gives us an intimate portrait of Mats, from his humor to his flaws. ConsThe documentary does start a bit slow. You would have liked to have heard from a few more of Mats’ online friends

Ibelin had its World Premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.