The story On l'appelait Ricou, Tulle, 9 juin 1944 tells — and why it matters now
On l'appelait Ricou, Tulle, 9 juin 1944 is a 2026 French documentary that reconstructs one of the darkest single days of the Nazi occupation of France through the eyes of a man who lived it. Henri André Valade — known to everyone around him simply as Ricou — becomes the film's narrative thread, his personal account woven against the broader horror of what the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" carried out in the small Corrèze town of Tulle. That date, 9 June 1944 (just three days after D-Day, when hope was barely a rumour in southern France), saw 99 men publicly hanged from balconies and lampposts, and 149 others rounded up and deported. The film doesn't let you hold that at arm's length. It pulls Ricou's voice — his name, his face, his particular survival — right to the front, refusing to let the tragedy dissolve into abstraction.
How On l'appelait Ricou, Tulle, 9 juin 1944 came together as a production
The documentary is a co-production between France 3 NoA - Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France Télévisions, and Ici Nouvelle-Aquitaine, three public-broadcasting entities with deep roots in the regions most directly scarred by the events of June 1944. That regional grounding isn't incidental — it shapes the film's entire sensibility. This isn't Paris looking south at a provincial tragedy; it's a community returning to its own wound. The production sits firmly within the "découverte" and culture-infos strand of French public television, a format that prioritises historical access over cinematic spectacle, which is exactly the right call for material this charged.
No director has been publicly credited in available listings, and Canal+ — where the documentary has been broadcast — doesn't surface cast or crew details beyond the programme description itself. Major databases including AlloCiné, IMDb, and Letterboxd carry no ratings or reviews at the time of writing, which is honestly not unusual for a made-for-television historical documentary of this scope. IMDb currently lists it at 0/10, meaning no aggregated score exists yet, not that audiences have rated it poorly. Awards submissions, if any, haven't been publicly announced. What we do know is that the production has the institutional weight of France Télévisions behind it, a broadcaster that has a track record of commissioning serious, archivally grounded work on the Second World War — and that the subject itself has been examined before, including in a 2014 documentary (Le Massacre de Tulle, 9 juin 1944), which gives this newer film a body of prior scholarship to build on while staking out its own angle through Ricou's individual testimony.
What makes On l'appelait Ricou, Tulle, 9 juin 1944 stand out from other wartime documentaries
The thing nobody mentions often enough about documentaries covering Nazi atrocities in France is how easily they can tip into a kind of numbing recitation — dates, death tolls, archive footage, solemn narration. On l'appelait Ricou sidesteps that trap by anchoring everything to a single person. Ricou's nickname alone does quiet, powerful work: it humanises before the film even begins. According to programme listings on Télé-Loisirs, the documentary frames the deportation convoy — 149 prisoners sent to Dachau, of whom only 49 ever returned — as the central fact around which Valade's story orbits. That ratio (49 survivors from 149 deported) is not a statistic you can process quickly. The film, by all accounts, doesn't let you.
What's striking is how the choice of a single witness as narrative anchor changes the emotional texture of the whole thing. You're not watching a massacre. You're watching what happened to Ricou — and then, by extension, to everyone around him. That's a craft decision, not just a structural one, and it's the kind of move that separates a documentary that informs from one that actually stays with you. The regional production context matters here too: France 3 NoA's proximity to Corrèze likely opened doors — family archives, local memory, community trust — that a Parisian production might not have accessed as readily. Hard to say if that's definitively the case, but the specificity of the portrait suggests it.
Movie OTT tracks historical documentaries like this one across streaming platforms, and titles with this level of archival and testimonial depth tend to find sustained audiences well beyond their initial broadcast window.
Where to stream On l'appelait Ricou, Tulle, 9 juin 1944 online
On l'appelait Ricou, Tulle, 9 juin 1944 has been broadcast on Canal+'s documentary and "Découverte" strand, making Canal+ the confirmed platform for this title. Beyond that, the documentary's wider OTT footprint hasn't been formally documented in current public sources — no confirmed availability on Netflix, Prime Video, or other major international services has been announced at the time of writing. The Where-to-Watch widget at the top of this page on Movie OTT reflects the most current, verified streaming data, so check there first before searching manually. Movie OTT aggregates availability across major platforms in real time, which means if the film surfaces on additional services, that widget will catch it. For now, Canal+ is your clearest route in.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Where can I watch On l'appelait Ricou, Tulle, 9 juin 1944?
The documentary has been broadcast on Canal+ in France, within the platform's "Découverte" programming strand. Check the Where-to-Watch widget on this Movie OTT page for the most up-to-date streaming availability across all platforms.
Q: Is On l'appelait Ricou, Tulle, 9 juin 1944 based on a true story?
Yes — entirely. The film documents the real events of 9 June 1944, when the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" carried out mass hangings and deportations in Tulle, France. Henri André Valade, nicknamed Ricou, is a real historical figure whose testimony anchors the documentary.
Q: How many people were deported from Tulle on 9 June 1944?
149 prisoners were deported to Dachau following the roundup in Tulle. Of those, only 49 survived to return — a fact the documentary places at the centre of its account, as detailed in the Wikipedia entry on the Massacre de Tulle.
Q: Who directed On l'appelait Ricou, Tulle, 9 juin 1944?
No director has been publicly credited in available listings or databases at the time of writing. The production is attributed to France 3 NoA - Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France Télévisions, and Ici Nouvelle-Aquitaine, but individual crew credits have not been released publicly.
Q: What year was On l'appelait Ricou, Tulle, 9 juin 1944 released?
The documentary was released in 2026 as a made-for-television production, broadcast within Canal+'s documentary programming. It is classified under the History and Documentary genres.
Who should watch On l'appelait Ricou, Tulle, 9 juin 1944
Anyone with an interest in Second World War history, the French Resistance, or the human cost of Nazi occupation in southern France will find this documentary essential. It's not light viewing — 99 men hanged, 149 deported, a town that still carries the weight of that Tuesday in June. But the focus on Ricou gives the film a human scale that makes it approachable even for viewers new to this chapter of history. Movie OTT recommends it without hesitation for history documentary fans. Precise. Grounded. Necessary.
