
Aladdin’s parents separate when he is three. His father moves with him and his brothers to Tangier and re-marries. Then he leaves the family again and goes to Holland. Aladdin ends up on the street, sniffs glue, polishes shoes and keeps afloat by stealing. Years later, his father returns and finds Aladdin completely down and out. The boy steals from his own father and flees to the mountains, to Ketama. When an inner voice leads him back to Tangier, his father, to whom he is indebted, is dead: the trauma of his life. Desperate, he searches for a father figure and finds him in Felix, a foreign writer, who takes on the role of the magician in the story of initiation “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp” from "Arabian Nights". He helps Aladdin to come up in the world and leads him to the discovery of his creative power – his “magic lamp”: Aladdin takes up painting and finally manages to reach his long-awaited getaway to paradise, Europe, where he meets his princess and marries her.
By depicting 4 different stories, Director Sergio Tovar Velarde keeps the focus on the shared humanity and search for love (both self and romantic) of various gay Mexican men.
Disney has cleverly managed to dance around the misdeeds of their past by scraping by with an insincere action that does very little to incite any long-lasting positive changes.
Director Dana Ziyasheva made her directorial debut, 'Defenders of Life' which focuses on the Ngäbe community, and the hardships Ngäbe girls faced in Costa Rica.
So with the recent (rightful) public apologies to Britney from comedians and media for trashing her image in the 2000s, perhaps some people should also give Crossroads the fair chance it deserves. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, and that is fine. Personally, I will take my girl Britney and her movie, over the next testosterone "Dude Flick" any day.
Neo Sora left a realistic and yet hopeful notion for the near future and the now.