by Christos Zabounis

When Leonard Cohen arrived in Hydra, he was 26 years old. The diary records the year of our Lord 1960. He is not the only foreigner to settle on the island of the Argosaronic Gulf. A restless bunch, mainly writers and painters, have decided to live a bohemian life, far from the conventions of Western societies. Leonard is Canadian and has won a literary prize before abandoning his studies at Columbia University in New York. In one of the rare interviews he gave to the French magazine “Les inrockuptibles” he explained what led him to our country: “I went in (ed.: to the Bank of Greece in London) and saw a rather tanned teller behind the counter. I ask him “what is the weather like in Greece” and he tells me “it is spring”. Two days later I left for Greece”. With the money he inherited from an aunt, he bought a house on Hydra for just $1,500. He remained there until 1967, when his book “Beautiful Losers” became a best-seller, but he continued to visit it with his occasional partners and his two children. Cosmote TV bought the rights to the Canadian-Norwegian series “So long Marianne” and so we had the opportunity to follow the love story between the then unknown, and later famous Canadian songwriter, and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen, who inspired the song of the same name. It is a hymn to youth and an elegy to that generation that realized that our life has meaning when we give it meaning. The actors are convincing in their roles and the unchanging Hydra is the ideal decor for yet another love story. “C’ est un beau roman, c’ est une belle histoire”, according to Michel Fugain.