An Iranian director, screenwriter, and producer, Masoud Kimiai has a rich filmography with over thirty-five films and a career spanning five decades in the film industry. With no formal training in filmmaking, he started his career in cinema as an assistant director on films such as Khodāhāfiz Tihrān (Goodbye Tehran; 1965), directed by Samuel Khāchīkīyān, and The Invincible Six (1970), an American–Iranian action movie directed by Jean Negulesco. He subsequently directed his first feature film, Bīgānah bīyā (Come Stranger). in 1968, which was not successful at the box office. He became an iconic figure in Iranian cinema with his second film Qaysar (1969), and also as a result of his collaboration with Dāryūsh Mihrjūyi in Gāv (The Cow; 1969). Qaysar is focused thematically on a marginalized society and is centered on an anti-hero’s life journey. Kimiai’s early career success with both Qaysar and Gāv cemented his name in the film industry as a pioneer of the Iranian New Wave. His emphasis on social issues and his use of concepts such as protest and struggle against the status quo led by an emerging protagonist from among the common people, has led some critics to consider his pragmatic approach in contrast to Filmfārsī, and as effective in shaping the Iranian New Wave in the 1960s. Others believe that his film structure, in terms of conceptual approach to social themes such as sexism and social beliefs, is a continuation of Filmfārsī.