KRISTIN VOLLSET

No Plan

22.06 - 13.08.23

Still from No Plan, Kristin Vollset.

When the travelling Norwegian street musician, artist, filmmaker, and vagabond Kristin Vollset crashes her van into the wall of one of Dublin’s urban horse yards, right in the middle of the inner-city neighbourhood of The Liberties, a horse and a group of teenage boys in tracksuits emerge. The boys invite her to go for a ride in the traffic, and Vollset immediately decides to stay.

The Liberties has always been seen as a place where people value the freedom to govern themselves - hence the name. This mentality is still very much alive, even though the once working-class neighbourhood has been gentrified. Horsemanship has been passed down from father to son for generations, and the animals are still used to transport people, goods, and tourists. Vollset ended up staying in the neighbourhood for two and a half years and eventually bought her own horse. She hung out with the boys practically every day and was allowed to film them. Their friendship is the starting point for this award-winning musical documentary.

“It’s not often that a music video moves people to tears,” wrote Klassekampen, which referred to No Plan as an anthropological-musical tribute to an Irish urban community. The film won the award for Best Short Documentary at IFI’s Documentary Film Festival in Dublin in 2017 and has since been screened at festivals worldwide. Its sequel, “They Can’t Stop You,” won the award for Best Music Video at the Bergen International Film Festival in October 2020, and Vollset is now working on her upcoming documentary, “Horses & Cars.” Under the artist name The Musical Slave, she has toured as a street musician worldwide. She completed her composition studies at the Grieg Academy and film studies at the London Film School. She currently lives and works in Bergen.