Starlight Hotel
7.1
During the Great Depression, Kate (Greer Robson) is a 13-year-old girl living on New Zealand's 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 battle-scarred 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.
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Cast
25 people
Greer Robson
Kate
Also in
Shortland Street
Smash Palace
Peter Phelps
Patrick
Known for
Baywatch
Lantana
Sam Pillsbury
Grant Hindin-Miller
Finola Dwyer
Alice Fraser
Aunt
Also in
Ngāti
Send a Gorilla
Larry Parr
Patrick Smyth
Uncle
Also in
Jack Holborn
The Dig
Bruce Phillips
Kate's Father
Known for
The Rule of Jenny Pen
Ike: Countdown to D-Day
Vanessa Young
Schoolgirl #1
The Wizard of New Zealand
Swaggie (as The Wizard)
Teresa Bonney
Schoolgirl #2
No other roles listed
Sam Pillsbury Director · Grant Hindin-Miller Writer Andrew Hagen Composer
United States release August 1, 1988 · Produced in New Zealand · Production Challenge Film Corporation
Production
New Zealand Film Commission
Production
Challenge Film Corporation
Production
New Zealand
Produced in
Languages
Original language
English
Spoken on screen
English
Release dates
Denmark · November 27, 1987
Theatrical
United States · August 1, 1988
Theatrical
Hungary
April 15, 1998 · TV premiere
More from Sam Pillsbury
Other films they directed, best known first.
Some details come from TheTVDB.