Winner of two Sundance awards, this deeply moving documentary traces a young man’s exploits in a virtual world amid the restrictions of his physical life.

When Mats Steen dies at just 25, his parents grieve the loss of their son as much as the full life they believe he was denied. But when they post a death notice on the web, they are inundated with heartfelt condolence messages and stories from people all around the world who had befriended Mats through the online role-playing videogame World of Warcraft. Duchenne muscular dystrophy may have confined Mats’s body, but the degenerative disease couldn’t confine his mind, his soul, his generosity and kindness, or his imagination.

Benjamin Ree’s extraordinary film – which features Mats’s own voice, revealed via his extensive blogs – ingeniously challenges the assumption that the young man’s days were defined by isolation, highlighting the connections Mats forged in the gaming community and his friendships that transcended distance and physicality. But it’s from the perspective of his avatar, private investigator Ibelin Redmoore, that his rich alternate existence comes into view, thanks to transcripts and archives from the game world. Winning Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Directing Award (as well as audience awards at Sundance and Tromsø), Ree seamlessly weaves together home movies, clever narration, interviews with family and friends, and unique WoW-based animation to uncover the truly remarkable life of Ibelin, and of the person behind him, in all its stunning emotional intensity and intellectual curiosity.

“Ibelin is a rare work of non-fiction … A beautiful, powerful film that goes well beyond the expected.” – Point of View

———
The session on 23 August is Sensory Friendly. This session will run a little differently to a standard session. To learn about what these changes are, you can check out MIFF’s Access page and review the Sensory Friendly Guide, which will be uploaded here closer to the session date.