Starlight Hotel (1988)

During the Great Depression Kate Greer Robson is a 13yearold girl living on New Zealands South Island When her mother dies and her father is offered a job in Wellington on North Island Kate is sent to live with an aunt The girl runs away to find her father hopping onto a boxcar and befriending a fellow fugitive Patrick Peter Phelps an emotionally battlescarred WWI veteran fleeing the authorities after injuring a repo man Pretending to be father and daughter Patrick and Kate use each other for cover as they make their way across New Zealand sleeping under the stars and championing the rights of destitute farmers and homeless squatters whose fortunes have been wiped out by economic hardship