One highlight in Arkatov's career has to be his 1913 film "Sorrows of Sarah" (Горе Сарры) he directed which is regarded as one of the pinnacles of Jewish cinema.

The films were censored due to having dealt with the oppression suffered by the Jewish people within the Pale of Settlement under the Tsar's reign.

1918 marks the last year of Arkatov's Jewish centered filmmaking with his film "I Want to Be a Rothschild" (Хочу быть Ротшильдом) he directed.

After working for the military, Arkatov went back to direct films on his own and also started teaching religious studies, according to his death certificate,[4] as a professor in the University of California[5] Born November 11, 1890, in Rechytsa, The Russian Empire, Alexander Arkatov (originally named Alexander Mogilevsky) lived to 70 when he died on February 6, 1961, in Los Angeles, California.

Due to political unreliability, Arkatov was unable to the state examination at the university and as a result – could not live outside the Pale of Settlement, the main Jewish area in Russian territories back then.