JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<body ng-app="myapp">
<span ng-controller="ctrl" ng-show="toshow()">
    <a href="/" localize="'continent_'+breadcrumb+'_heading'">this won't be visible due to toshow() returning false</a>
</span>

</body>

JavaScript

angular.module('myapp', [], null).directive('localize', function() {
    return {
        priority: -1000, // doesn't help
        link: function postLink(scope, element, attrs, controller) {
            // this code is called first, before ng-show
            
            var locKey = scope.$eval(attrs['localize']);
            console.log('localization: ', locKey);
            
            // ...
        }
    };
});

function ctrl($scope, $timeout) {
    $scope.toshow = function() {
        // caled after the localize ~ link method
        console.log('evaluating ng-show');
        return false;
    };
    $scope.breadcrumb = 'breadcrumb part';
    console.log('set variable');
}