Hydra on screen: from Sophia Loren to Brad Pitt

Hydra's film story begins in 1957, when Hollywood discovered an island still absent from the world's tourist maps: Boy on a Dolphin, with Sophia Loren, was the first major American production shot in Greece — and its windmill still stands above the western rocks (visit it).

Greek cinema arrived almost simultaneously: Michael Cacoyannis shot «Το Κορίτσι με τα Μαύρα» (A Girl in Black, 1956) here, turning the island's austere architecture into the backdrop of one of the great Greek social dramas. In 1962 came the international production Phaedra, with Melina Mercouri and Anthony Perkins — the same years a young Canadian named Leonard Cohen was buying a house up the hill (that story here).

The 1960s brought Island of Love, 1970 the cult Incense for the Damned — and the tradition never stopped: in February 2026 Brad Pitt filmed scenes for a new international production on the island, with Hydriot extras and port-side shops as sets. Seventy years on, cameras still find their way to the harbour where it all began.

For moving images of the island itself through the decades, see our Old Hydra archive.