Interestingly, Sohrab Shahid Saless is one of the most significant figures in the history of Iranian cinema, despite him actually having made only a couple of films in Iran. In this chapter, Shahid Saless's film A Simple Event (1974) is analysed in terms of its visual elements and stylistic devices, as well as directorial approach. The director's use of non-professional actors and the inspiration he took from Chekhov have already been discussed on several occasions, but this chapter takes a unique historical perspective and applies it specifically to examine the concepts of ‘realism’ and ‘minimalism’ in Shahid Saless's work.

Sohrabi Shaid Saless's name is legendary in Iranian cinema. He is one of the few Iranians who studied cinema outside of Iran and succeeded in becoming a great and influential filmmaker. Amongst the other handful of successful Iranian directors who studied abroad are Dariush Mehrjui, who made the highly praised film The Cow (1969), and Kamran Shirdel, who made the critically acclaimed The Night It Rained (1967). However, Mehrjui studied philosophy and Shirdel was more inclined towards documentaries.

With only two feature films, A Simple Event (1974) and Still Life (1974), as well as a handful of short films, amongst which Black and White (1972) is still recognized, Shahid Saless was yet able to consolidate his reputation as a prominent filmmaker in Iranian cinema history. He also managed to continue making both fictional and documentary films after emigrating, and consequently made a name for himself within German cinema of the 1970s and 1980s. On the other hand, his premature and tragic death in 1998, when he was only 54 and living in isolation and exile, accentuate the dramatic facets of his life.

Perhaps the process of making his first film, A Simple Event, is an important contributory factor to Shahid Saless's legendary allure. The fact that he went to Bandar Shah (today renamed Turkman Port) with limited means to make a short film and, instead, came back with a full-on feature film (which was accepted at the Second Tehran International Film Festival in 1974 and won an award there) sounds like an embellished tale to this day.