108 Media and Paladin have picked up all North American rights to Michel Gondry's Bronx tale The We and The I at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the film is making its North American screening debut.

The film, which we've been tracking since its Director's Fortnight debut at the Cannes Film Festival in May, stars Michael Brodie, Teresa Lynn, Laidychen Carrasco, Raymond Delgado, Jonathan Ortiz, Jonathan Worrell and Alex Barrios, and is described as follows:

The We and the I is the heartfelt and comical story of the final bus ride home for a group of young high school students and graduates. As kids depart the bus for the last time, we get to learn about these graduates as they step into the world – their love, their conflicts, their despair and their hope.

As noted in our last post on the film, there's a sci-fi element to the story – the school kids accidentally travel into the future, where they discover a machine that keeps people young; although there's really no sign of that part of the story in the below trailer.

Mars Distribution is handling the film's release in France, while 108 Media and Paladin plan to release it in New York and Toronto in early March 2013, before expanding to other major markets.

The acquisition was negotiated by Urman and Rastogi with WME Global, repping Gondry as well as the film's producers Georges Bermann, Julie Fong, and Raffi Adlan.

Watch the trailer below (poster underneath):