Though Buñuel never states what the symbolism represents , leaving it to the viewer 's understanding , one critic , Roger Ebert , wrote a lengthy interpretation of the film 's symbolism , which includes the following paragraph : " The dinner guests represent the ruling class in Franco 's Spain . Having set a banquet table for themselves by defeating the workers in the Spanish Civil War , they sit down for a feast , only to find it never ends . They 're trapped in their own bourgeois cul-de-sac . Increasingly resentful at being shut off from the world outside , they grow mean and restless ; their worst tendencies are revealed . " This film received the International Federation of Film Critics ( FIPRESCI ) award of the international critics and the Screenwriters Guild at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival . At the 1963 Bodil Awards , the film won the Bodil Award for Best Non-European Film
1962 Cannes Film Festival
1962 Cannes Film Festival
The Exterminating Angel