The 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is under way and all eyes – and ears – are fixed on the events opening film, Nick Broomfield’s documentary Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love, screening on Friday 1st March.

The acclaimed filmmaker, known for a series of music-themed documentaries, most notably Kurt & Courtney, about the tragic hero of the ’90s grunge rock scene, Kurt Cobain and his wife, Courtney Love, and Biggie & Tupac, about murdered rappers Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace and Tupac “2Pac” Shakur.

After his 2017 documentary on Whitney Houston, Whitney: Can I Be Me, the director returns into music territory, this time telling the love story of Leonard Cohen and  Marianne Ihlen. The couple met in Hydra, where the poet had lived for a few years in the 1960s. At the time, the island had become an international artist colony, welcoming writers and artists from all over the world. It was there that Cohen was transformed from obscure poet to singer-songwriter, embarking to conquer audiences all over the world; and the young Norwegian woman was his muse and inspiration.

Marianne Ihlen and Leonard Cohen in Hydra. PHOTO: Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

The film – which debuted at this year’s edition of Sundance Film Festival, arguably the world’s most significant independent cinema event – explores the coupling of these two free-spirits, and the highs and lows of the relationship, and the strong bonds that remained long after the couple had split.

Ilhen and Cohen both died in 2016, four months apart from each other.