In the 1980s a special action took place in the Netherlands. A petition for the right to free emigration of Soviet Jews was signed by more than 1 million people. It is one of the largest

solidarity actions that our country has ever known and that have also caused a stir internationally.

In this film, writer and historian Aline Pennewaard searches for the initiators of this action and meets a number of Soviet Jews who had emigrated to Israel, young activists or so-called 'refuseniks' at the time.

She speaks with the well-known peace activist Awraham Soetendorp, who was the figurehead of the Solidarity Committee at the time. We also meet the refuseniks, the very elderly Yosif Begun, who managed to survive in Siberian labor camps for 12 years, Silva Zalmanson, who tried to escape from the Soviet Union with a hijacked plane, and the famous couple Nathan and Avital Sharansky. REBELLIE OF HOPE provides a unique picture of the 1970s and 1980s, in which the Cold War of the past is sometimes frighteningly reflected in the present.