How to use value passed to views_embed_view as a filter?
The value you pass as last argument to views_embed_view is not passed to the Views' filters, but to the view's contextual filters  (also known as arguments). Contextual Filters are like filters, expect they take external input (from the URL when viewed as a page or from the arguments passed to functions such as views_embed_view). You can learn more about contextual filters here: http://drupal.org/node/1578558