Guy Ben-Ner’s early works display an acute, self-critical and humorous position towards his familial situation and artistic practice. The struggle between the artist's freedom and his will to take an active part in the creation of a healthy family life has underlain his works since 1996. Ben-Ner's films are based on familiar settings and circumstances of mutual love, care and abuse, and are informed by his interest in early film and the vaudeville tradition as well as conceptual art practices.

In Household, Ben-Ner develops his ideas of isolation and punishment in the domestic realm, when the artist, violently enters a fateful situation – like the shipwreck survivor in Berkeley’s Island, and kidnapped like Ishmael in Ben-Ner's own version of Moby Dick. These situations-epitomize Ben-Ner's idea of the artist in his studio, bringing sequences of extreme ingeniousness and creativity that enable him to escape, or, at least, survive.

House Hold begins with another situation that could be regarded as a practical joke, but immediately transforms into a personal tragedy. While Amir, his baby boy, sleeps peacefully, the artist crawls under his bed as if to check or fix something. At that moment Amir starts crying, and Nava, his mother, comes to pick him up. In order to do this, she lowers the crib’s adjustable bars, creating a cage in which the puzzled Ben-Ner is imprisoned. A mere noise, or a call, would have resolved the situation and have Nava raise the bars and let him out, but Ben-Ner accepts the situation. Moreover, unlike his family, he is acting in a silent movie, and therefore cannot call for help, so he goes on to concoct his own personal escape operation. As he stays helpless in his cell, life at home goes on as usual. No one seems to notice that the father is gone, even when they are in the same room. 

Soon, the little cell turns into an active studio, as Ben-Ner puts all his creative powers into the escape. His first step is the most radical: he cuts off a finger. A sacrificial act necessary in order to set him on the path of survival and freedom. This sacrifice will enable him to survive, for thanks to this "extra" finger, he can now reach water, plan his escape – as he will be able to draw designs of the plan, and prepare tools to materialize the scheme. Another “sacrifice” is tearing his hair out to make a string with which to reach food and tools for escape. In fact, House Hold is a film about the making of tools; from his initial sacrifice, he makes a screwdriver, chalk, a knife, and later a hammer. 

As the film comes to an end, we see the cage opening, but we do not see the artist leaving. The question of his actual escape remains open.

House Hold is inspired by Robert Bresson's classic 1956 movie, A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s'est échappé), which tells the story of the escape of Lieutenant Fontaine, a prisoner of the Nazis in 1943 France. Ben-Ner was fascinated by Bresson's austere means and schematic approach to lighting and acting. Bresson’s films, like Ben-Ner's, are strangely devoid of "action" and feelings; his heroes follow their destiny, giving the impression of a metaphysical quest rather than an adventure. Ben-Ner found further interest and affinity in Bresson's notorious rejection of professional actors, studio shooting and elaborate camera movements that caused his performances to be dry and devoid of emotions, much like Ben-Ner's own unprofessional presence in his films. In Bresson’s film, as in Ben-Ner’s after him, the making of the tools embodies and signifies the struggle to escape; this is further accentuated by the fact that the operating tools create most of the film’s soundtrack. 

From: Guy Ben-Ner; Self-Portrait as a Family Man; catalogue of the Israeli Pavilion at the 51st International Art Exhibition – Venice Biennale, 2005