Poster of the film The Remarkable Life of Ibelin

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin

Documentary Animation Norwegian


The secret life of a young World of Warcraft gamer is vividly reimagined when his online friends contact his family after his death.

Cast:Mats Steen, Robert Steen, Trude Steen, Mia Steen, Kelsey Ellison, Thomas Stene-Johansen
Director:Benjamin Ree
Writer:Mats Steen
Editor:Robert Stengård
Camera:Rasmus Tukia, Tore Vollan

Guild Reviews

Image of scene from the film The Remarkable Life of Ibelin

The Retroactive Stillness Of Grief

FCG Member Reviewer Rahul Desai
Rahul Desai | The Hollywood Reporter India
Thu, October 31 2024

(Written for OTTPlay)

Director Benjamin Ree uses the investigative form of a true-crime drama. Except, the twist in this documentary is that the victim was actually a survivor — the grand revelation is life, not death

Benjamin Ree’s The Remarkable Life of Ibelin starts off as a documentary about death. We see the tombstone of Mats Steen, a Norwegian boy whose body and soul were at war. A mix of VHS footage and family interviews then reveals that Mats had duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a degenerative disease that reduced his 25 years to a hellish survival story. His mind yearned for the momentum his muscles never had. Subsequent clips show his body shrinking on landmarks and vacations, the end inching closer.

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