A Palestinian surgeon drives home after a long night shift, but little does she know that a commute through a desolate West Bank road will change her forever.

Director Biography

Said Zagha is a UK-based Palestinian-British screenwriter and director whose work fuses genre storytelling with a political edge. His 2025 short film COYOTES premiered in the Orizzonti section of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival and went on to win the Best Short Film Award at the BFI London Film Festival, where it became BAFTA-qualified (2027). It also won awards at the Red Sea International Film Festival, Calgary International Film Festival, Carthage Film Festival, and received special mentions at AFI Fest and Foyle Film Festival.

Zagha is in advanced development on his debut feature, BLACK HARVEST, a Palestine-set revenge thriller supported by all major public film funds across the Arab world and selected for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab (2026).

Previously, he directed the first two episodes of CRASHING EID (2023), a Netflix Original miniseries set in Saudi Arabia that reached Netflix's global Top 10 across more than 30 territories. His earlier shorts, LOVESICK IN THE WEST BANK (2021) and FIVE BOYS AND A WHEEL (2016), screened widely on the international festival circuit, including at Academy-qualifying events such as Tampere, Urbanworld, Portland, and Dubai.

Born in Jerusalem and raised in Ramallah, Zagha holds a BA in English from Kenyon College and an MA in Screenwriting from the London Film School. He is also a Berlinale Talents alumnus.

Director Statement

COYOTES was born out of true stories and an urgent question: what happens when one’s humanity is pushed into a proverbial iron cage, an impossible corner? I grew up in Palestine, under a brutal Israeli occupation designed to weaponize our vulnerabilities and erode our will — through violence, surveillance, coercion, and fear. As I struggle to cope with an unremitting campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide directed at my people and my homeland, I felt compelled to create a cinematic response to a system built on layers of injustice and double standards. Set over one night, COYOTES is a neo-noir thriller that explores the inevitable outcome of impunity and domination.