Ballad of a Small Player

Ballad of a Small Player (2025) is a British–German drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Edward Berger — the filmmaker behind All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave. Colin Farrell plays Lord Doyle, an English aristocrat who has arranged his life entirely around the baccarat tables of Macau.

Doyle owes the hotel money. A private investigator is tracking him from London on a fraud case. He is out of funds and very nearly out of time — and still convinced his luck is about to turn. Chen Fala plays Dao Ming, a mysterious woman who extends credit to desperate gamblers before vanishing without explanation. Tilda Swinton moves through the margins of the story with a particular kind of elegant menace.

Berger shoots Macau as a trap with good lighting: all glittering surfaces and no exit. Farrell plays a man not chasing a win but postponing a reckoning, and the distinction matters. Watch Ballad of a Small Player online on iFILM.