by Geoffrey Macnab, Screen daily

Dutch Production house Springfilm and UK producer Film and Music Entertainment have completed shooting on Manila-shot fiction feature Snow White (aka Lilet Never Happened).

Directed by Jacco Groen, the film is set in the the dark underbelly of child prostitution in the Philippine capital Manila.

Johanna Ter Steege headlines the cast. Here in Cannes, it has been confirmed that campaigning organisations Salinlah, Pinay Sa Holland, Small Voices for Change: An International Campaign to Stop Child Prostitution and Gabriela have joined the project as campaign partners.

The drama script is based on the real life story of a child prostitute in Manila who, having reached the end of her possibilities, attempts suicide as a desperate way out of her terrible life.

The Dutch National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development (NCDO) and the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment are amongst the film’s financiers, along with Springfilm Foundation, Filmmore, Witsenburg Natural Products.