In the classic mold of  “Aladdin and the Magic Lantern” from the 1001 Nights, Aladdin: The Way to Paradise tells a tale of initiation: the homeless Moroccan shoeshine boy Aladdin meets a foreign writer (the genie) who helps him come up in the world and discover his creative powers (the magic lantern): he starts to paint, and eventually manages his long-awaited getaway to Europe, where he finds his “princess” and weds.
A typical story that has long unfolded in the real life of Northern Africa: today, half of Morocco’s more than 30 million inhabitants are under the age of 20, and virtually all of them want to flee to “the paradise of the West”.  But only the cleverest make it...