When the Norwegian gamer Mats Steen died from a degenerative muscular disease at the young age of 25, his parents’ and sister’s world was turned upside down completely. While mourning what they thought was Mats’ isolated life, they got immense support from an unexpected corner. They knew that Mats had spent many hours playing the World of Warcraft game, but they didn’t realize the tremendous impact Mats had on the virtual community. His virtual friends reached out in person and virtually to pay their respect to the person they knew, as Ibelin. Mats’ parents never thought he would experience friendship and love, but little did they know he was experiencing all that and more virtually.
Their incredible story was the starting point for director Benjamin Ree’s latest documentary, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin. Via animated reconstructions from Mats’ gameplay, interviews, and Mats’ blog, Ree takes us on an adventurous and courageous journey through Mats’s online and real-life life. Ahead of the Netflix release on the 25th of October, Geek Vibes Nation spoke to Ree to talk about this gripping documentary, his connection with Mats and his family, and taking huge risks while making this work.
Geek Vibes Nation (Liselotte Vanophem): Hi Benjamin, Congratulations on the documentary. How did you come across the story of Mats and their family?
Director Benjamin Ree: I read a feature article about Mats’ life published in the Norwegian media. When I read that, I cried a lot. It made a huge impression on me. I learned about it through social media posts, published by Mats’ uncle, who had been my teacher at school. He was also the person who introduced me to filmmaking. So, I called him to say how much that story meant to me.
He told me that Mats’ family had filmed his whole life from the day he was born. That was when I thought it was possible to make a documentary film about him. So I contacted Mats’ parents and asked them if they had done the same as my family growing up, walking around with these old VHS cameras. The next time we met, they brought all that footage to me.
It hadn’t been digitalized before, so I digitalized it. The first footage I saw was Mats as a baby. Right beside Mats was another baby that looked like me. I was laughing a little bit, and then I realized it was actually me. So the first footage I saw was Mats and me in a playpen together. My parents and Mats’ parents, were in the same group of friends back in the late 80s. But because my family moved away from Oslo when I was one year old. So, it was a huge shock to see myself on that footage.
I also learned that Mats and his friends had stored a huge archive of gaming dialogue and descriptions in forums. And then I thought, what if we recreate an actual lived avatar life here, based upon the game? And that was my pitch to the parents. They used some weeks to think about it.
It was very emotional for them to talk about it, almost like opening a wound of sorrow. But simultaneously, they were curious about what kind of life Mats had lived inside the game. They thought that with the film, they would learn more about their son. So, after some weeks, they said yes to being part of the film and then we began the process.
GVN: Did they know about his virtual life before making the film, or did they all find out about it when filming it?
BR: They knew about it beforehand, so right after his passing, they received emails from around Europe. But you can say that they’ve gradually gotten to know more and more about Mats’ life. In the film, for example, we meet Mikkel from Denmark. He has locked himself inside for three to four years and has not been to school. Mats helped him to go back to school and back to society. His parents didn’t know about that. During this process, they learned a lot about their son.
GVN: Do you write a script as well for this documentary? How do you decide which footage goes first and which lasts? And which is included and which isn’t?
BR: Here, we did not make a script. We made a synopsis. And the script was formed the editing timeline. I had an idea where the story would go. But of course, it took a long time. We had this archive of 42,000 pages of gaming dialogue. And that’s the story within the story, the film within the film. We had to reduce that down. It took two years in the editing room. It took four years to make this documentary and two years in the editing room alone. That was a long time.

GVN: Can you tell us a bit more about which company you worked with to create the in-game footage depicting Mats’ virtual conversations?
BR: I hadn’t played World of Warcraft before I began this process, but I knew I also wanted animators who knew that world very well. So we did a lot of research on fan animators—on YouTube, actually. There’s a huge community of people making fan videos based on the game. They take out models directly from the internet and then import them into 3D programs like Maya. And from there, they make animated films. So I found this very talented film production company in Stockholm.
That made animations that were very authentic to the game. But also felt very inclusive to everyone. I contacted the company. Rasmus Tukia first told me that it was only him working there. It was not a film studio, only him. He was only doing this in the evenings. In the daytime, he was working and studying and he he was living together with his parents. Rasmus alone made all the 3D animation in the film. This was done independently of the company that owns the game, Blizzard. After three years of working with it, we had the version of the film we liked. Then, we contacted the company that owns the game.
GVN: What if they would have said, “No, you can’t use this”?
BR: Yes, that was a huge risk. But it was also the only way we could make an independent film. So we contacted them and wrote them an email. Saying like, hello, we’re a small Norwegian production company. We made this film you don’t know about, but we would like to show it to you. And then they said yes. I travelled to California and I was extremely nervous because we didn’t have a plan B.
Then we showed them the film. What we were asking was, “can you grant us the right to use this world without your involvement? For free.” After the screening, I could see some of the bosses crying. They turned around, and they told us that we would get the rights to make this film. That was a fantastic moment in the production of this work. So it’s been a very unusual way of making a film. So it was a risky project, but that’s also a bit of the fun with making films.
GVN: How do you feel about Netflix releasing the documentary and the thought of The Remarkable Life of Ibelin being seen by people worldwide?
BR: My first reaction was, “that’s fantastic for many reasons”. This is a story about online communities. Showing the film online and reaching as many people as possible is excellent. It’s also a story about a young Norwegian gamer. And I found it very fulfilling and intriguing to know we can tell his story so his voice can reach the world. He wrote a fantastic blog that we used in the film. There are so many biopics of celebrities now these days and now I know that an unknown Norwegian, a normal person, gets to tell his story through his blog.
It’s also a way we can remember him. That was one of his wishes. Because he lived such a short life, he wanted to be remembered. So it was very fulfilling to know that Netflix wanted to show the film. A lot of great documentaries have been shown on Netflix in the past. So yeah, it was fascinating.

GVN: Did you already show the documentary to the people you spoke to, like the virtual community and, obviously, his parents?
BR: The parents’ have seen loads of the footage as they made it themselves. Before the Sundance premiere of this film this year, Mats’ father told me that he had seen the film 50 times. They have used the film as part of their healing process. Watching the film is also part of re-evaluating their son’s life. Because they thought that he was living a very long and isolated life and didn’t experience love, didn’t experience friendship and didn’t experience making an impact on other people’s lives. However, after his passing, they had to re-evaluate that totally and fundamentally. This film has been a part of their process of re-telling the story of who their son was. Because he had a lot of friends, he experienced love and he made a significant impact on other people’s lives.
GVN: What would you say to the parents who see their kids gaming but don’t know what it means to them? To some parents, gaming is still bad, especially if their kids spend hours playing the games.
BR: The parents might see the bad things, but obviously, gaming can be healing and helpful. At least in Norway, 95% of the media coverage of gaming and online culture is negative. So, we need to tell stories about the positive sides of online communities and gaming. At the same time, I think that this film hopefully also explores this in a nuanced way as we also see the negative sides. Mats hides behind the screen, and he gets in a lot of trouble. So, I think engaging with your kids and being curious about what they are doing is very important when playing football or handball.
Also, engage a bit in gaming and pay interest in that because there is a huge generational gap there. Mats and I were the same age, and our parents didn’t know anything about gaming or that culture. So I hope this film will invite conversations, hopefully, also through generations.
The Remarkable Life Of Ibelin is out on Netflix on the 25th of October. Read our interview with Mats’ parents, Robert and Trude here, as well as our review of The Remarkable Life Of Ibelin.