The Veterinarian

Gertrud Hellbrand

The Isle of Wight, England, summer 1965: Bengt, a young Swede, is drawn into a love triangle, which becomes a matter of life and death. Meanwhile, at a riding camp in Verden, Germany, provincial girl Lucille learns the extent of life’s injustice. Then, one blustery autumn evening in 1994, Artur and Inez Johansson step aboard the doomed MS Estonia, about to set sail from Tallinn harbour.

Kristin has returned to her childhood home to make a radio programme. The mood is tense at the farm. The family have just buried their brood-mare, and the talented rider, Carro, has disappeared. Kristin begins to have doubts about her project. She’d left her family home behind and thought she’d moved on with her life, but soon becomes aware of a dark longing that won’t let her go.

THE VETERINARIAN is the story of a family, spanning five decades. The growing popularity of equestrianism provides a backdrop, against which a figure stands out – the veterinarian – as one of the momentous forces that come to shape and define a family.