“Frybread Face and Me” is set in 1990, when its protagonist, Benny (Keir Tallman), reluctantly goes to live on a Navajo reservation with his maternal grandmother (Sarah H. Natani). Having grown up in San Diego, the 11-year-old Benny has more experience with action figures, SeaWorld visits and Fleetwood Mac tunes than with rug weaving, sheep herding and bull riding. Over the kind of indelible summer beloved by screenwriters, he will receive an introduction to all three.

It helps that Benny is quickly joined at his grandmother’s by a cousin of a similar age; she is widely known by the nickname Frybread Face (Charley Hogan). Fry acts as a translator with their grandmother (who has refused to learn English), teaches Benny a few Navajo concepts and even gives him a driving lesson. The cultural exchange goes both ways: Fry is enthused to learn that Benny can visit the orca Shamu at SeaWorld whenever he wants.