Goltzius and the Pelican Company is a 2012 historical film by writer-director Peter Greenaway.

Plot

The film is based on the life of Hendrik Goltzius, a late 16th-century Dutch printer and engraver of erotic prints. He seduces the Margrave of Alsace into paying for a printing press to make and publish illustrated books. Goltzius promises him an extraordinary book of pictures of the Old Testament Biblical stories. Erotic tales of the temptation of Adam and Eve, Lot and his daughters, David and Bathsheba, Joseph and Potiphar's wife, Samson and Delilah, and John the Baptist and Salome. To tempt the Margrave further, Goltzius and his printing company will offer to perform dramatizations of these erotic stories for his court. Goltzius and the Pelican Company is the second feature in Greenaway's film series "Dutch Masters", which includes the previous film Nightwatching. The third entry in the series was to focus on Hieronymus Bosch and its release was planned to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Bosch's death in 2016.

Cast

Release

Goltzius and the Pelican Company was released on 17 September 2012.

Awards

Greenaway won the FICE Award for Best European Director at the FICE- Federazione Italiana Cinema d’Essai in 2014. He was also nominated for the New Visions Award for Best Motion Picture at the Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival in 2013.