The eponymous Rebellion of the Deaf refers to the protest of deaf students from the American Gallaudet University, who in 1988 fought for the appointment of the first deaf rector in history. The project was inspired by the story of a Dutch artist, a daughter of Chinese immigrants, born in Europe. When she was born, social services advised her parents to raise her without using their own language, in order to better assimilate her. The parents, who did not know Dutch, brought up their daughter practically without speaking to her: they used only about 50 of the simplest words at home. Her relationship with her family was very similar to that usually created by deaf children with hearing parents. The text, which is the basis of the film and performance, presents situations of difficult closeness, disturbed by a lack of a common language or by an inability to communicate. Another part of it is the history of deaf communities, their struggle for recognition of their cultural identity and for sign language to be granted the status of a fully-fledged language. There are also plots of deprivatory language experiments and stories of creating universal languages, which were intended by the authors to enable communication of all people.

The film was made at the Geological Museum of the Polish Geological Institute, in the Botanical Garden of the Polish Academy of Sciences, at Zachęta — National Art Gallery, as well as in private spaces and outdoors.