FILM ABOUT SIX-DAY WAR IS HONORED

An Israeli made-for-television movie about the Six-Day War has won first prize at the Locarno International Film Festival.

It was the first Israeli film to win the 39-year-old competition.

Second prize was awarded to West German Peter Schulze Rohr for “Hautnah” (“At Close Range”), which deals with industrial espionage.

An American, Joseph Sargent, won third prize for “Love Is Never Silent,” the story of a boy raised by deaf parents.

The Israeli entry, “Forward, People,” was directed by Rafi Bukaee, one of 14 young entrants in the festival’s television category.

The festival includes only works by movie makers who have made fewer than four films in their careers.

Festival organizers said Bukaee was not present to receive his award, called the Golden Leopard, because he could not afford the trip to Switzerland.

The four-person jury said they chose the film, which mixes realism and surrealism, for its liveliness and “ironic and sometimes humorous telling of the tragic absurdity of the war.”

During the Six-Day War, fought June 5-10, 1967, Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria, Old Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan, and the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt.