Burmese Jātakas in the Movies

“I started exploring local Burmese folktales along with the Jātakas, and it’s understood that in some way, the bad guy is going to get their just desserts in another lifetime, and the karma is going to be distributed into two different reincarnations. And so that radically destabilizes what we think we know about narrative, if we're going across different lifetimes!”

There's something quite special about "Golden Kingdom," the beautiful film shot in a Shan monastery by director Brian Perkins, and in my interview with him we get the behind-the-scenes scoop of what went into this unique feature.

Just one of several things that Brian brought up was how hard he worked at making sure the movie would adhere not to Western standards, but rather that it would fit appropriately with his understanding of Burmese Buddhist folk culture.

A meditator himself, he came to find that a classic Hollywood structure brought a finite story within the frame of the tale. Yet when applying an understanding of the role of karma across multiple lifetimes, the landscape changed dramatically, and the scope widened far beyond what he initially thought possible.

Take a listen to the rest of the gems Brian divulges in this interview... and don't miss a chance to see this special film along with it!