Road to Samarkand

Essie wants to die. Not only, she wants to die in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

You may think Essie's cuckoo, but she's not: she's desperate to get rid of the guilt and grief for killing her beloved grandma. Now 18, Essie's finally on her happy-go-deadly way across Central Asia, and no one can stop her. Not her best friend and travel companion Akito, and certainly not Taalay, the dashing Kyrgyz Essie's kissed one drunken night.

Taalay wants to do things properly. He's met Essie, he's kissed her, he's smitten.

So naturally, he kidnaps and marries her with a big fat wedding- all legal under the Kyrgyz custom of ala kachuu. Now for the tricky part: making Essie fall in love with him. Taalay's only got one chance: the honeymoon. A trip across Kyrgyzstan to Khan Tengri... with the new bride, her weird friend Akito, and Bubusara, the girl-next-yurt.

Bubusara has been in love with Taalay for as long as she can remember. Now he's married. When Essie the husband-stealing witch begs Bubusara to help her escape, Bubusara immediately agrees and points her towards Khan Tengri, to both divorce and skip the border. But as the only translator, Bubusara has to join the crazy trip with Taalay, Essie... and witty, captivating Akito.

Akito regrets ever setting foot in Central Asia. He wanted a fun breakaway trip with his best friend, Essie. Now Essie's married, and Akito's getting drunk on vodka, playing dead goat polo, sleeping in yurts and fighting Russians as they get far, far away from civilisation. Worse yet, Essie's stopped talking about divorce and started yapping about a happy, married life in Kyrgyzstan. Akito knows there's a third way between dying in Samarkand and living in a yurt- if only he could muster enough courage to tell Essie.

Gaia graduated from New York Film Academy in 2014 (Screenwriting), from La Sapienza University of Rome in 2017 (BA Literature) and from London Film School in 2020 (MA Screenwriting). She's co-written several short movies, one recently optioned TV series and her first book Ciao, Ambra has been published in March 2021.

She has once volunteered as an English teacher in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia, for two months, and climbing the Gobi dunes is still her proudest achievement to date. She has been to Kyrgyzstan, but was neither kidnapped nor married there, as far as she knows.