Throughout his life, Alfred Brežnik - Fredi, an electrical engineer, a businessman and a long-term Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Slovenia in New South Wales, Australia, has been promoting Slovenianness and his home country with dedication and sacrifice. He moved to Australia in 1959. Together with other compatriots in Australia, Brežnik was particularly active during Slovenia’s independence process. Prior to that, he held intensive discussions with Australian politicians regarding the recognition of Slovenian independence. And also thanks to him, Australia was the first overseas country to acknowledge Slovenia as an independent state in January 1992.

David Sipoš is known to the Slovenian public as a film-maker and director of documentary feature films. He is a recipient of several national and international film festival awards.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Slovenia’s independence, we asked famous Slovenians what this anniversary means to them, whether they might remember certain events from that time – provided they were alive back then – whether their parents told stories of that period, and what an independent Slovenia means to them.