Cannes - The recent series of global natural disasters that have left thousands dead have been playing both onscreen and off-screen roles at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Apart from the festival's opening film about a town ravaged by an outbreak of blindness, leading Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, in town for the screening of two films, has been fielding questions about her response to the devastating typhoon that hit Myanmar and that massive earthquake that engulfed parts of China.

On Saturday, French actress and singer Jane Birkin is to lend her support to a group of monks protesting at the festival over the handling by the military leadership in Myanmar of the typhoon disaster, news reports in France say.

Jolie is in Cannes for the screening of Kung Ku Panda, in which she supplies the voice for a Tigress, and for veteran US director Clint Eastwood's Changeling, about a mother whose child has disappeared.

Speaking at a press conference in Cannes marking the debut of Kung Fu Panda, the 33-year-old Jolie said she had been in touch with the Burmese on the border regions.

"I will be as active as I can," said Jolie about the Chinese earthquake.

But said Jolie, who is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations' Refugee Agency, her involvement in China also depended on how involved the Beijing authorities would allow the UN to be.

"My daily life is being at home with my kids," said Jolie. "Understanding what is happening in the world makes me a better person and parent," she told Wednesday's press conference. (dpa)