Cosima Spender’s “Without Gorky” documentary about Armenian surrealist and abstract expressionist Arshile Gorky is a deeply personal exploration of buried memories and distant impressions that have pervaded her upbringing.

Cosima’s Grandmother Mougouch met Gorky, 20 years her senior, at the age of 19.

With a combination of archive footage, shots of paintings, her mother and aunt’s hazy memories, the film explores Gorky’s legacy, in the order that Mougouch came to know him. Gorky created a web of lies around himself, so extensive that Mougouch didn’t know his full background, or even real name until after his death. A series of unfortunate events unfolded during their relationship, leading to his suicide; his studio burnt down with many of his paintings, he underwent extensive surgery for cancer and broke his neck.

The documentary untangles the mystery of Gorky’s history that led to his migration to New York and offers a sense of catharsis, and perhaps liberation from the turbulence and confusion lingering in Gorky’s shadow, littlewhitelies.co.uk reports.