After colonialism and the civil war, film was not regarded as a priority. Until 1989, the Ministry of Culture's Cinema Department had a monopoly on film production. The first feature-length film produced after the monarchy was abolished is "Gun Voice from the Plain of Jars", directed by Somchith Pholsena in 1983, but its release was prevented by censorship. After 1989, several state companies were allowed to operate, but the success was limited. In fact, writing in 1995, Som Ock Southiponh asserted that “Laotian cinema does not exist."