New film tells story of how parents discover late disabled son’s “rich” online life

Record ID: 1852975

  • Title: New film tells story of how parents discover late disabled son’s “rich” online life
  • Date: 1st November 2024
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 30, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DIRECTOR OF “THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF IBELIN”, BENJAMIN REE, SAYING: “So the remarkable life of Ibelin is a story about the Norwegian gamer called Mats Steen. He was born with the muscular disease called Duchenne, which makes his muscle become weaker and weaker. He became only 25 years
  • Embargoed: 15th November 2024 10:24
  • Keywords: Benjamin Ree Ibelin Mats Steen The Remarkable life of Ibelin World of Warcraft disabled gaming
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: Norway
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
  • Reuters ID: LVA002610431102024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:When Norwegian gamer Mats Steen died at the age of 25 from a degenerative muscular disease, his parents found out about the secret life of their son who had spent endless hours playing "World of Warcraft" as the character Ibelin.
    “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin”, a new documentary on Netflix, which premiered on October 25, tells the coming-of-age-story of Steen seen through numerous home videos, interviews with his "World of Warcraft" friends and a reconstruction of his "World of Warcraft" experiences based on his blog posts and texts from the gaming forum.
    Steen, who had the muscular disease Duchenne, spent the last ten years of his life gaming all the time.
    “That was the biggest sorrow for his parents, that he did not experience friendship, love, or making an impact in other people's lives. So that was their biggest sorrow when he passed away,” the documentary’s Norwegian director Benjamin Ree told Reuters.
    Steen died in 2014.
    He had left behind the password to his blog and when his parents posted on it about his death, the response was overwhelming.
    “After he passed away, suddenly his parents began receiving emails from all over Europe telling totally different stories about their son, telling stories about their best friend, that Mats had changed their lives fundamentally and they even wanted to come to his funeral,” said Ree.
    The parents discovered that Ibelin was an active member of a "World of Warcraft" group and that through the years he had developed friendships, had crushes and helped many of the group’s members.
    Ree said he hoped the film would show the value and importance of online friendships.
    He also said Steen’s family - his father Robert, mother Trude and sister Mia - had seen the documentary many times and used it as a part of their healing process and to better understand their son.
    “They had thought he had lived a very isolated and lonely life and this film shows that he did not live a lonely and isolated life," Ree said. "He lived a very rich life. And he did experience love. He did experience friendships and make a huge impact”.
    (Production: Ilze Filks)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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