Mats Steen, a Norwegian teenager, passed away at the age of 25 in November of 2014. As a result of having been born with Muscular Dystrophy, Mats was often confined to a wheelchair, being socially stunted and withering away for most of his life. After the untimely passing of their son, Mats’ parents were heartbroken at the idea of Mats, The Remarkable Life Of Ibelin who would never make any friends or enjoy any adventures. However, that blog post was the exact reason they ceased to receive further messages of condolence, instead, people shared with Mats’ parents how special Mats had been to them, further overpowering his parents vision of the whole reality, with a dimension which they had been oblivious about.
In two parts, Mats’ story is narrated by documentarian Benjamin Ree, the author of The Painter And The Thief. The first part of the story is a touching and rather heartbreaking timeline covering corporeal Mats’ life, lovingly narrated by his parents and relived through the blur of home video tapes starting from his first steps to the last days of his life. The film rewinds and restarts again but this time it does not showcase Mats Steen the teenager, instead it focuses on Ibelin Remora who was Mats’ alter ego in the huge online multiplayer video game World Of Warcraft. This is when the parents of Mats started to search for his second life, which is on the internet. As such, we are now engrossed into the game, living through his life as he does. Mats’ post are laced with narration and actor voiced dialogues creating vivid imagery of his online life beautifully animated and re enacted using the characters from the game.
It’s an incredibly more visual and striking technological tool that does an excellent work of depicting the world in Mats’s view: to say that Azeroth grew for him in a more significant light than the Norwegian settlement that he was situated in comes as an understatement. Collectively spending thousands of hours on the internet, we see Mats do things that most people would deny especially running through fields, dragon slaying, forging bonds, making new friends and even having his first kiss.
These bonds and interactions make Mats feel in a more personal space as now he has fallen in love with a rogue player in the game named Rumour along with capturing his heartbreak and later fictional heartbreak from domestic gamer Lisette Roofers. He gives connection to Rieke a Danish child with autism through a gamer community, while propelling his own true self away and making it difficult for the people around him to grasp his potential.
Rees juxtaposes a Mats perspective through systematic in-game storytelling with Mats’ relationships through real-world interviews. Mats’ relationships appeared to be woven together in a fabric that consisted of emotions, only for those to fray away as he grew increasingly frustrated with himself, ultimately turning towards violence. This is where Mats’ parents, Trude and Robert, come into the light. Their ever concerning and honest words seem to strike anger into one’s gut, until one learns about In-game Scooby and they start, for the first, to truly understand their child, months after Mats has passed away.
The movie carefully tries to paint a picture of an artificial universe that, to Mats Steen, provided the most hidden features of the real world, in order to convey the idea that a life controlled via a device is equally worthy of living as one where flesh occupies the body. For screenshot culture and the importance of a digital hidden identity, there is more to life than just a blunt message; an honest depiction of a young adult who has been deprived of expressing emotions when unable to reach out physically.
Irrespective of the issues concerning one’s digital legacy and the nature of existence, this account is gently recreated around the two grieving parents of their son, and a vivid recollection of life in the pixels celebrating that short life.
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