Produced in Yugoslavia, Die gluckliche Begegnung, which translates as "The Happy Encounter," is an enigmatic inquiry into the means by which an individual can know and understand the self through history and the past. Odenbach orchestrates a series of lyrical images, from farmers hoeing the earth to students reading aloud from oversized tomes. In an emblematic image, a youth watches archival film footage of goose-stepping soldiers with his hand partially covering his eyes. The act of observation and the meaning of representation are posited as metaphors for knowledge of one's self and one's culture.