‘Starlight Hotel’

This 1987 New Zealand film is pure enchantment, a perfect blending of cast, setting and story that brings to mind the visual impact of “Days of Heaven”--and could just as easily have been set in the American Midwest during the Depression. It’s such a familiar tale--the plight of a pretty young runaway of 12 (Greer Robson) and a man (Peter Phelps) in his 20s on the lam--that you’re surprised how deeply you become involved. It’s amazing how much suspense that writer Grant Hinden-Miller (adapting his own novel) and director Sam Pillsbury generate over this man’s fate and its consequences for his young companion. The film’s title, by the way, comes from Phelps’ slang for sleeping out under the stars (KCAL Saturday at 1 p.m.).