AustLit

Petru Popescu was at one time Romania's most famous opposition writer. He escaped from communist Romania to the United States of America in 1977 and went on to become a best-selling American author and a successful Hollywood film maker and screen writer. Although never residing in Australia, Popescu collaborated with Peter Weir (q.v.) on the screenplay and film The Last Wave, based on Popescu's novel of the same name and set in Australia. Popescu's other novels (none of them connected with Australia), include Bough (1973), In Hot Blood (1988) and The Return (1997). In 2001 he published The Oasis : A Memoir of Love and Survival in a Concentration Camp, the story of how his parents met in wartime Germany.

Popescu's television writing credits include the teleplay Obsessive Love (1984) and the mini series Emma : Queen of the South Seas (1988). His film credits include Death of an Angel (1986) and Nobody's Children (1994).