An animated film in development · A film written by Guillaume Laurant and co-directed by Alexandre Aja and Hefang Wei.
YINGZI, a young girl born in Xi’An, where her parents make their living from the silk trade, will try every trick in the book to finally go with them along the Silk Road. But in a pass in the Pamir, their caravan falls into an ambush. Yingzi's parents are killed and her little brother Kai Fang is kidnapped. Yingzi will do everything she can to free Kai Fang from the clutches of Akbar, who holds him among the child slaves of Khiva. This quest will take the young girl across some 8,000 km of the various “Silk Roads” and through more than 3,000 years of their history, from the Taklamakan to Venice, by way of the Karakoram, the Kyzylkum, the Jade Gate, Tashkent, Mount Kailash, the Valley of the Thousand Buddhas, Balkh, Samarkand and Berlin. With her travelling companions – a Little Nameless Monkey with the power to slip from one era to another, the Insolent Bird, an alcoholic, polyglot, insolent and provocative mynah, and the very young Marco Polo, accompanying his uncles, ambassadors of the Pope – Yingzi will have to face or outwit many adversities, overcome a great many trials and ride an emotional rollercoaster before reaching her goal.
