The Icelandic kayaker Veiga Gretarsdottir has always gone against the current. In a literal sense, she attempted and succeeded in a feat that had never been done before: circumnavigating the 2,000 kilometer distance of Iceland counterclockwise on kayak.
Gretarsdottir, now in her mid-40s, has also pushed upstream in her personal life; she is transgender and received transition surgery at 38.
Much like this obvious metaphor — which the film gleefully underlines — Oskar Pall Sveinsson’s “Against the Current” feels cliché even with an intriguing subject.