Judy Ann Santos, Jeanne Balibar and Stacy Martin are set to star in “Aid,” Philippines auteur Brillante Ma Mendoza’s new political drama, which is being introduced to international partners at the Cannes Film Market with Fire & Ice Media attached as delegate producer alongside France’s Ghost City Films and the Netherlands’ Human Films.
The project is also expected to be one of the first features produced under a bilateral co-production agreement signed by France and the Philippines in Cannes last year.
“Aid” follows a respected NGO worker committed to protecting Indigenous Aeta children in the Philippines who finds herself increasingly entangled in the broader machinery of international humanitarian aid. Santos plays Ruby Dela Cruz, the head of a grassroots organization serving Aeta communities, while Martin plays Angelique Dumont, a European humanitarian executive overseeing aid operations across Southeast Asia. Balibar, who has worked with Arnaud Desplechin, Mathieu Amalric, Olivier Assayas and Jacques Rivette, and also performs as a singer and stage actor, rounds out the principal cast.
Santos previously collaborated with Mendoza on “Mindanao” (2019), winning best actress at the Cairo Film Festival. Martin’s recent credits include Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” Lars von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac” and Michel Hazanavicius’s “Godard Mon Amour.”
