Goltzius and the Pelican Company

Awarded Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema at the 2014 BAFTA's, Peter Greenaway (Nightwatching, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover), one of the most inventive, ambitious and controversial film-makers of our time, explores the life of celebrated 16th century Dutch artist and printer Hendrik Goltzius in this brilliant showcase of Greenaway’s legendary trademarks of breathtaking visuals and provocative subject-matter. In the winter of 1590, Goltzius (Ramsey Nasr) attempts to persuade his patron, the Margrave of Alsace (F. Murray Abraham, Amadeus), to pay for a printing press which will enable him to create a pioneering deluxe edition of the Old Testament featuring illustrations of such erotic tales as the story of Lot and his daughters, the adultery of David and Bathsheba and the seduction of Joseph by Potiphar’s Wife. To sweeten the deal, Goltzius, along with the members of his Pelican Printing Company, offers to stage live dramatisations of six biblical tales, each of which will demonstrate a different sexual taboo...