Ellen Foster (1997)

In this TV movie set in the American South during the 1980s, 11-year-old Ellen (Jena Malone) enters a life of hardship after her mother's suicide. Fleeing her abusive father, she goes first to live with her bitter grandmother (Julie Harris) and then is shuttled to one strange household after another, always beset by new problems and difficulties but gaining strength and insight along the way. The title of the film refers to her misunderstanding the phrase "foster family."