After studying at film academies in Vienna and Paris, Sales returned to Iran and from 1969 to 1973 made 22 short films. Soon after, he made his feature films Yek Etefagh sadeh (1973) and Still Life (Tabi'at-e Bijaan, 1974), which won the Silver Bear at the Berlin film festival in 1974. Due to his political views and opposition to the regime, he left Iran and in 1979 moved to Germany where he made Dar Ghorbat (1975), Tagebuch eines Liebenden (1976), Reifezeit (1979), Utopia (1983), Rosen für Afrika (1992). In 1995 he left Germany and moved to the US.