"Masel Tov Cocktail": A Conversation with Filmmaker Arkadij Khaet
In cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Boston 
Thursday, February 18, 2021
12-1:30pm Eastern Time (US) / 6-7:30pm German time
Zoom Webinar
You can watch a recording of the complete event by clicking the button above.
About the Event
Synopsis of "Masel Tov Cocktail"
Ingredients: 1 Jew, 12 Germans, 50 ml Culture of Remembrance, 30 ml stereotypes, 2 teaspoons of patriotism, 1 teaspoon of Israel, 1 falafel, 5 Stumbling Stones, a dash of antisemitism
Directions: Put all ingredients into a film, bring to boil and shake vigorously. Then garnish with Klezmer music.
Consumption: Light before serving. Enjoy at the cinema. 100% kosher.
DIMITRIJ Liebermann (19) is Jewish and punched Tobi in the face. Now he’s supposed to apologize to him. But Dimitrij doesn’t exactly feel sorry. While on his way to meet up with Tobi, he encounters a diverse representation of German society. Again and again, Dimitrij faces one struggle he needs to overcome: his German-Jewish identity.
An analysis of the status quo.
The directors of "Masel Tov Cocktail" Arkadij Khaet and Mickey Paatzsch are 29 years old and met eight years ago during studies of Film at the Media Academy in Cologne. They have been writing screenplays as well as directing together ever since. Their short films were presented at more than 150 film festivals all over the world and won numerous awards, among them the German Human Rights Award 2016 that honors movies which deal with human rights in an extraordinary way. Since their graduation in Cologne, Arkadij has taken up his studies in Direction of Motion Pictures at the film academy in Ludwigsburg, while Mickey has finished his master of philosophy at the University of Cologne.
About the Speakers
Arkadij Khaet was born during the final moments of the Soviet Union. A few weeks after his birth his family left the Republic of Moldova and immigrated to Germany. After graduating highschool he lived in Israel for a while, and then moved to Cologne to start his undergraduate studies in Film and Television. As a student he started to implement his own film projects. He met his co-director and colleague Mickey Paatzsch with whom he started a collaboration on several projects. As of October 2016, Arkadij Khaet is studying Film Directing at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg and is currently living in Southern Germany.
Misha Vilenchuk graduated from Brandeis University with a master’s degree in Global Studies, and bachelors in Russian, NEJS, and History, and wrote his Master's thesis on the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. On campus, he founded American Union of Jewish Students (AMUJS), and the Coalition Against Anti-Seminitism in Europe (CAASE), and was involved in the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS). Today, he lives in Chicago and serves on the boards of KAHAL: Your Jewish Home Abroad and the Russian-Jewish Division of the JUF. Since January 2020, he is the Director of Senior Living Experts, a senior concierge service, runs mmchess.org and is happily engaged.
Eve Litvak graduated from Brandeis in 2016 with a B.A. in European Cultural Studies, IGS, and Russian. She stayed on to pursue her M.A. in Comparative Humanities, focusing on theories of translation, interpretation, and the impact of language on memory. During her time at Brandeis, she studied abroad in Italy, Russia, and the Netherlands. When on campus, Eve was involved with global education initiatives and CGES. She also served as a UDR and Community Advisor. Since leaving Brandeis in 2017, Eve studied at Paideia, the European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden, and the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg. She has been grounded in the States since late 2018, and spent much of that time working in marketing in New York City. Today, she is a 1L at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, New Jersey.
