Based on his own play, which he had staged a year earlier, DEATH OF YAZDGERD is set during the final days of Yazdgerd, the last king of the Sassanian dynasty, who was killed in a mill while fleeing the Arab invasion of Iran in the 7th century. The film centers on the miller, his wife, and their daughter, each offering conflicting accounts of the king’s death in an attempt to save themselves—echoing the narrative structure of RASHOMON and rendered in a distinctly Shakespearean style. This highly political and poetic epic is a complex, layered work, offering a masterclass in writing powerful dialogue, actor choreography, camera movement and dynamic, rhythmic editing. The essence of the director’s cinematic vision is crystallized here; the film touches on themes of state repression, familial oppression, and the looming threat of foreign invasion. Despite the original play having passed censorship, the film itself was banned.