Music Box Films has taken all US rights to Brother (Hermano), this year’s Venezuelan submission for the Foreign Language Oscar.

The deal was negotiated at the recent Ventana Sur market in Buenos Aires, by the film’s co-producer Juan Antonio Diaz for A&B Productions and Music Box partners William Schopf and Edward Arentz.

Marcel Rasquin’s debut feature film is about two young men from Caracas, who are raised as brothers in a slum and try to live their dream of becoming professional footballers.

Arentz said: “Hermano is not just a great sports movie, its a moving and truly hopeful drama with an almost mythic narrative structure that remains fully grounded in reality. Marcel Rasquin is clearly an important new voice in Latin American cinema and we look forward to sharing his film with US audiences.”

A late spring 2011 release is planned in the US.

Hermano previously picked up awards in Moscow and Havana and at the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival. It has also been a box office hit in Venezuela.

Music Box’s releases include The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and the forthcoming Potiche.