DOCUMENTARY
Trans Kayaker Goes Against Current
Film chronicles journey of Icelandic athlete
BY STEVE ERICKSON
“Against the Current,” a
documentary about transgender
Icelandic kayaker
Veiga Grétarsdóttir, is not
subtle. Its title, said twice in the
fi lm, has a double meaning. The
fi lm depicts Veiga’s 2,000-kilometer
kayak voyage in 2018 around
the island of Iceland, where she
chose to challenge herself by rowing
against the current. She faced
the danger of possible drowning
in frigid water, as well as the fact
that she needed to eat as many
as 7,000 calories a day to fuel her
body to spend eight hours rowing.
The cross-cutting between her
present-day journey and Veiga, her
family, and friends looking back at
her youth and gradual realization
that she could only be happy living
as a woman suggests that she
also struggled against the current
of her culture and family’s expectations.
Apart from Veiga’s description
of one threatening incident,
“Against the Current” avoids stories
of misery and trauma. After
her kayak trip ends, the fi lm
shows a grossly offensive cartoon
from a local newspaper, as well as
other trans Icelanders calling her
a role model, but it keeps Veiga’s
story personal. The forces that
kept her from realizing she was
transgender till 2014, at the age of
36, were both internal and part of
social conditioning. As a teenager
in a small town on Iceland’s west
coast, she began buying women’s
clothes. Marrying and becoming a
parent did not change her identity,
although she struggled to remain
cordial with her wife and eventually
divorced. Veiga meets up with
her again more than 1,200 kilometers
into her journey.
Veiga’s interests are coded masculine
– she loves working on her
car and spending time outdoors.
Her construction skill enabled her
to take apart her stereo speaker
and car so she could stash female
clothes in them. Her life story defi
es gender stereotypes. Soon after
realizing she was transgender, she
Kayaker Veiga Grétarsdóttir.
Veiga Grétarsdóttir had to eat up to 7,000 calories per day to row for eight hours during a 2,000-mile voyage.
went on a hunting trip (the fi lm
shows a photo of her kill) driving
into the countryside dressed in
women’s clothes and makeup. Her
athleticism does not make her any
less female.
These things matter because
so much transphobia has been
expressed through raising fears
about trans women’s participation
in sports. This line of thought,
heavily promoted by Joe Rogan’s
podcast, has had a dismaying
amount of success even with liberals
and leftists. Athletes’ transformation
of their bodies is generally
celebrated, but when trans
women participate in sports, they
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are seen as male interlopers stealing
awards from more deserving
cis women (even though this
hasn’t actually happened outside
Rogan’s imagination and TERF
Twitter). Underneath it lies the
same old notion of LGBTQ bodies
and identity as a kind of cheat
against nature, with the ‘80s and
‘90s playbook used against cis gay
men and lesbians just getting an
update.
“Against the Current” director
Oskar Pall Sveinsson — who
produced S Club 7’s “Never Had a
Dream Come True,” which was a
US top 10 hit — shot it in the same
style as his landscape photography,
which can be seen on his Instagram
page. He emphasizes the
enormity of Iceland’s mountains
and sea in long shots suggesting
danger by framing Veiga and her
kayak as a much smaller portion
of the screen. The cinematography
achieves a wintry atmosphere.
It’s “nature porn” that should look
great in a movie theater, down to
the reliance on drones, but its beauty
retains its edge. (“Against the
Current” also incorporates footage
Veiga herself shot on the kayak.)
Sveinsson works hard to bring out
the chill in the air. The extremely
spare score, where a solo pedal
steel guitar, cello or voice plays in
the distance, aids with the mood.
(Sveinsson was a successful pop
songwriter and producer before
starting a production company to
turn to fi lmmaking.) But it’s also
worth pointing out that Sveinsson
uses nature and sea shots, which
could have been taken at any time
and edits them as though they’re
a direct illustration of Veiga’s trip
around Iceland.
“Against the Current” does have
a Transgender 101 tone. It was
made to explain trans identity to
cis people, and a few moments, like
a baby photo showing Veiga’s penis
and scenes of the beginning of her
gender confi rmation surgery, fall
into the trap of stories about trans
people focusing too much on genitalia.
But it’s the story of a specifi c
trans woman’s journey, formed
by the region where she grew up
and the majesty of Iceland itself.
Sveinsson’s direction and cinematography
bring out a near-pantheistic
quality: one understands
why someone would want to spend
103 days rowing underneath its
mountains. “Against the Current”
doesn’t waste time arguing about
trans female athletes’ legitimacy.
It just shows the life of one such
woman and celebrates her accomplishments,
with great pictorial
style.
AGAINST THE CURRENT | Directed
by Oskar Pall Sveinsson |
Zeitgeist Films/Kino Lorber | In
Icelandic with English subtitles |
Opens June 25th at the Quad
June 24 - June 30, 2 62 021 | GayCityNews.com
/GayCityNews.com
