The new feature film Borges and Me, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, chronicles Jay Parini’s 1970s road trip across Scotland alongside writer Jorge Luis Borges, blending literary history and absurd theatrical encounters.
The Bottom Line
- The Premise: Jorge Luis Borges unexpectedly invited himself along on Jay Parini’s planned trip to Orkney to meet poet George Mackay Brown, transforming a routine academic excursion into an odyssey.
- The Cast: The film stars Fionn Whitehead as a young Parini and Luis Gnecco as Borges, backed by a Scottish ensemble featuring Alan Cumming, Peter Mullan, and Morven Christie.
- The Production: True to its setting, the production utilized an all-Scottish crew, transforming historical locations like St Andrews to match the mid-1970s aesthetic.
Chasing Quixote Through the Scottish Highlands
For Jay Parini, the journey that inspired the new film began as an act of benevolent service. Tasked with driving Borges around Scotland, Parini quickly realized he was hosting a man who viewed reality through a distinctly literary lens. Borges liked to imagine himself as the fictional Spanish knight Don Quixote, criss-crossing the Highlands with Parini cast in the role of his squire and companion Sancho Panza.
That dynamic set the tone for an itinerary that bypassed typical tourist stops in favor of eccentric literary pilgrimages. On the way to meet Scottish poet George Mackay Brown in Orkney, the pair stopped off at Lower Largo, Culloden, Loch Ness, and Dunfermline—the latter serving as the scene of a notorious book-licking incident. Borges even nicknamed Parini’s borrowed Morris Traveller Rocinante, after the clumsy and aging horse from Cervantes’ 17th-century novel.
Director Marc Turteltaub knew immediately where the film needed to make its bow. Having previously brought his film Puzzle—starring Kelly Macdonald as a housewife who becomes a professional jigsaw puzzle solver—to the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Turteltaub insisted on an EIFF premiere for Borges and Me.
Building an Authentically Scottish Cinematic Landscape
To anchor the film’s distinct tone, Turteltaub assembled a robust roster of local talent. “I’d always wanted to work with Alan Cumming, Peter Mullan and John Gordon Sinclair – since Gregory’s Girl,” Turteltaub noted regarding his casting choices. The production rounded out its roster with Morven Christie and Freya Mavor, operating alongside an all-Scottish crew to preserve the cultural texture of the source material.
For Parini, watching his youth reenacted on screen yielded a surreal psychological feedback loop. Returning to his alma mater of St Andrews, which had been dressed to look precisely as it did in the 1970s, offered a strange test of memory versus media. Parini observed that it is amazing how memory is supplanted by reality and pretty quickly the actors took the place of reality, noting that Peter Mullan doesn’t look that much like George Mackay Brown but absolutely embodies him, while Luis Gnecco captured the essence of Borges so effectively that Parini began seeing himself in Fionn Whitehead—despite joking that Whitehead is a lot nicer looking than he is.
Even off-screen, the production left tangible footprints across Scotland. The Morris Traveller used to haul the cinematic duo across the Highlands was snapped up as a souvenir after filming wrapped by Alan Cumming, ensuring that a piece of Rocinante stays safely parked in Scottish hands.
Behind the Scenes: Production and Festival Context
| Production Element | Details |
|---|---|
| Director | Marc Turteltaub |
| Key Cast | Fionn Whitehead, Luis Gnecco, Alan Cumming, Peter Mullan, Morven Christie, Freya Mavor, John Gordon Sinclair |
| Key Locations | Orkney, St Andrews, Lower Largo, Culloden, Loch Ness, Dunfermline |
| Festival Premiere | Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) |
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