Italian production outfit Lux Vide, which is now part-owned by international producer and financier Tarak Ben Ammar, has established a new international sales label to handle world-wide distribution on its first major feature film, Mother Teresa.

The $11m English-language film, which is due to be released theatrically next spring, is directed by Fabrizio Costa and was shot on location in Sri Lanka, India and Italy.

Starring Olivia Hussey in the title role, Mother Teresa was produced by Lux Vide's Luca Bernabei together with the UK's MTP in association with Blue Star Movies and Spain's Euroficcion.

World-wide sales are being handled by Lux Star, a London-based company specially created by Lux Vide, Euroficciones's Carlo Boserman and Carlo Sorengo, and Pete Maggi of Blue Star.

The new company will be now able to draw on partnerships that Maggi has established with the UK's Spice Factory and Australia's Arclight as well as Euroficcion's ties with Latin America and Ben Ammar's international connections.

'Lux Vide's intention is to build up its international strategy by forming alliances with international partners and maintaining world-wide distribution rights to its films,' Lux Vide's director of commercial affairs, Vincenzo Mosca, told Screen International.

Ben Ammar recently bought a 23% stake in Lux Vide. Founded in 1992 by Ettore Bernabei, the family-run company specialises in historic drama and most famously co-produced hit series The Bible.