Meet the 35s, an unsung community of gutsy Jewish housewives and mothers with no political experience, who refused to watch from their homes in Dublin and London as the Soviets tyrannically persecuted their fellow Jews in Russia (known as refuseniks) in the 1970s. Now in their 80s, for the first time, these women relate tales of how protesting locally escalated into derring-do visits to the Soviet Union (posing as tourists) to gather information and smuggle aid behind the Iron Curtain with help from Nativ, a top-secret Israeli government agency. Risking life and liberty, their clandestine missions galvanized international support (supported by vocal celebrities, such as Laurence Olivier, Ingrid Bergman and Jane Fonda) and paved the way for the liberation of over a million Soviet Jews. IRON LADIES chronicles their striking transformation from grassroots activists to an inconspicuous spy network that proved how the power of the people can bring down a mighty authoritarian government.
IRON LADIES is chock-full of interviews with members of the 35s, former refuseniks (including Natan Sharansky), a KGB agent and the former deputy director of Nativ. Director Aoife Kelleher lays out their unbelievable true story with the cinematic craft of a nail-biting spy thriller.
Director Bio: View on IMDB
Aoife Kelleher is an Irish filmmaker known for her award-winning documentary ONE MILLION DUBLINERS (2014), which explores stories from the famous Glasnevin Cemetery, and TESTIMONY (2025), about justice for women abused at repressive Irish Catholic asylums known as Magdalene laundries.
