A new Netflix documentary dives into the life of Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer who suffered from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and connected with people online using World of Warcraft prior to his death in 2014 at the age of 25.
The documentary takes a look at both Steen’s real life and also his digital footprint, speaking to his friends about his life and showing how games can connect people.
Per an official article from Netflix, director Benjamin Ree spotted himself and his parents in home videos of the Steen family.
“I’m not a religious person, but I almost became religious at that moment. Mats’ parents and my parents were in the same group of friends in the late ‘80s. When my parents moved to another part of Norway, they lost contact, sadly.”
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is available on Netflix from October 25, and features animation using models taken from World of Warcraft itself in order to tell the accurate story of what Mats Steen would have seen. Speaking about the fact that he had to speak directly to the developer of the game, Blizzard (who accepted the request to use the game in the documentary), Ree said:
“Here we were: two nobodies from Norway who’d come to ask for their intellectual property for free. We had no plan B.”
