Boutique sales agency FiGa Films has acquired worldwide sales rights to the Guatemalan drama "Nosotros" ("Us") ahead of its world premiere in the Discovery sidebar at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival. The deal matters as another marker of Central America's growing presence on the festival circuit, with writer-director Joaquín Ruano, making his feature debut, saying he needed a sales team able to guide the film through unfamiliar industry territory.

Set against a conservative, unequal Guatemalan society, the film follows Romero, a security guard from the highlands working in the capital, who forms a forbidden bond with Nubia, a trans woman running a shop in the mall he patrols, as suspicion among his colleagues threatens their fragile connection. It stars Lola Vásquez, Jozef Coxaj and Mayra Salvador, and is a Guatemala-Mexico co-production from Pamela Guinea and Ruano's companies Cine Concepción and Cine Murciélago. FiGa Films CEO Sandro Fiorin, who has worked with Guinea for over 20 years and tracked the project since its 2016 development at BrLab, negotiated the agreement; FiGa was founded in 2006 and also operates as a production and distribution outfit.