I am Immensely Thankful that I got to see this Documentary
At Fantastic Fest this year, I was standing in the Fons PR ticket office on Day 5 when I helped a man through the door with his luggage. It turned out to be the director of ‘Parvulos’, who personally asked me to watch his film that morning. That film is a Mexican horror with a host of positive reviews, but unfortunately I only had time to see one movie that day and I was sincerely in the mood for a documentary after watching 8 films, each from other genres from the festival’s lengthy catalogue thus far and none of them documentaries. Although I really feel bad for not attending ‘Parvulos’, there are no words that quite capture my sheer fullness of heart and immense thankfulness that I got to see this Norwegian documentary, ‘The Remarkable Life of Ibelin’ instead.
All I knew about the film upon sitting in my seat was that it was distributed by Netflix and the basic synopsis found in the Fantastic Fest 24 guide on their app: “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.” It was a minimal description and nothing could truly prepare me for what I was about to see!
‘The Remarkable Life of Ibelin’ absolutely is one of the most inspiring films I have ever seen, and one which I will always remember as truly and uniquely impactful. It beautifully pays tribute to Steen’s life by showing the many lives he touched, mended and inspired by his playing the game World of Warcraft, wherein he was a popular member of the game’s sprawling online community, known by his digital persona Ibelin Redmoore. The film takes viewers on an ingeniously constructed animation within the game combining narrative entries taken directly from the actual text conversations Steen had with his community members, as well as real life footage of the boy’s adolescent years up to his death, as we witness the truly remarkable young man that he was.
Heartbreakingly, the film brilliantly shines a spotlight on 2 things with exemplary and dramatic precision that makes the heart burst with sympathy for Mats Steen and his family’s loss: firstly, the evil of this aforementioned disease ‘Duchenne’, which made Steen suffer and basically wither away so ominously. “Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rare muscle disorder but it is one of the most frequent genetic conditions affecting approximately 1 in 3,500 male births worldwide.” – rarediseases.org
Secondly, ‘The Remarkable Life of Ibelin’, shows that within online gaming exists endless possibilities of belonging and escapism away from the harshness of life, which can be particularly enriching for those less physically able amongst us.
Take your mind back to the first time you watched Avatar, by James Cameron. Therein, Jake Sully is transported from his wheelchair of imprisonment into his Na’avi vessel and ecstatically dashes outside to jump, climb, and soar. This is the kind of reprieve and delight poor Mats Steen must have felt as he committed thousands of hours to gaming with his community wherein he felt perfectly unencumbered by his debilitating reality.
I want to extend my most sincerest and thunderous applause firstly to Director Benjamin Ree, and Musical composer Uno Helmersson for their outstanding work. Then also obviously to Netflix for bringing this story into the homes of millions of people. It will, at minimum, bring knowledge of the evil plight of the DMD disease to society’s conversational level (and in-turn perhaps funding research to discover a cure)… and at a maximum, cause viewers to realize how blessed most of us are to have a functioning and able body with which to enjoy our lives. Look after it, be grateful for it, move it, exercise it, and feed it healthy food.
Warning: I was one of the few who managed not to cry during this film but I came close. Bring tissues!
Another warning: As with most things in life, too much of anything is not good for you and the film does tend to slightly glorify video-gaming whilst only briefly mentioning the stagnatingly harmful effects of longterm overstimulation of this medium of escapism.