Four Shades of Brown

Dir. Tomas Alfredson. 2004, 192 mins. With Robert Gustafsson, Maria Kulle, Karl Linnertorp. Alfredson’s ambitious Four Shades of Brown was the result of a collaboration with the Swedish comedy group Killinggänget. A kaleidoscopic magnification of human behavior and mores, Four Shades of Brown tells four stories in four parts: a well-dressed man, having just completed his life’s work, meets his destiny, in the shape of a little man made out of wood; in the south of Sweden a zealous father tries to encourage his son, by showing him the joys of small animal cremation; in Gothenburg, a diverse group of people convene, in the belief that they will learn how to cook; and somewhere in the north, a patriarch dies.