Brian Perkins • Myanmar-USA • 2015 • Four orphans living in a Myanmar monastery come of age.

Four orphans live in a Buddhist monastery in northeast Myanmar. Surrounded by verdant hills and distant mountains, their lives are idyllic until the departure of the head monk on a long journey from which he may never return. Suddenly the young boys are alone in the forest, where strange and magical occurrences begin to pass.

Filmed with real-life novice monks in the days following Myanmar’s reopening to the outside world, Golden Kingdom authentically portrays young men coming of age in a mesmerizing landscape haunted by histories of violence. Brian Perkins’s directorial debut premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival.