Treatment

TREATMENT: RAVE QUEEN

Title: RAVE QUEEN
Genre: Drama / Psychological Thriller
Setting: San Francisco's underground tech and rave culture
Length: Feature – 100+ minutes

TONE & STYLE
"Rave Queen" is a visually hypnotic, emotionally piercing psychological drama, navigating techno-utopian illusions through a raw, immigrant female gaze. The story is soaked in color and sound: neon-lit warehouses, somber apartments, manicured tech offices, and dusty back alleys of San Francisco. It uses slow-burn suspense with bursts of chaotic ecstasy and tension. Emotional truths erupt under blacklight and bass. The tone oscillates between seductive and heartbreaking, vulnerable and explosive. The cinematic palette embraces contrasts: warm candle-lit Turkish interiors against cold LED-lit techno spaces; handheld intimacy versus cinematic overhead isolation. The camera dances with Alev’s state of mind—whip pans in manic moments, long still takes in grief or confusion, and dreamlike transitions between memory and present.

THE STORY

Alev, a vibrant but emotionally wrecked Turkish immigrant, arrives in San Francisco after a devastating breakup in Istanbul and a traumatic separation from her home and identity. We meet her as she steps off the plane, hiding her pain under sunglasses and glitter.

She reunites with her cousin Shay, the only family she has in the States, who reluctantly hosts her. Shay is a rigid, emotionally repressed engineer who disapproves of Alev's reckless party habits and her unprocessed trauma. Despite his judgment, he still cares for her deeply—too deeply, perhaps.

Alev quickly falls into the underground rave and tech scene. She meets Sara, her cousin's ex, who seems warm and encouraging, and introduces her to Scott, a charismatic entrepreneur with a mysterious allure. Scott woos Alev with intensity—fancy rides, poetic lines, a magnetic presence. He also presents himself as a visionary: the founder of a new tech startup blending AI with memory enhancement. Scott becomes both lover and manipulator, fueling Alev’s escapism with drugs, charm, and promises of inclusion in his utopian dreams.

Meanwhile, Alev struggles to find artistic purpose in her new life. She's a screenwriter at heart, but depression, immigration stress, and relationship toxicity block her voice. Throughout the film, we see glimpses of her unfinished script and subtle suggestions that she's documenting her life, or might in the future.

Alev's social circle includes:

• Levent, a successful tech executive and Shay’s friend, emotionally detached and polished.

• Burak, a naive but wealthy friend from New York, who is roped into Scott's scam.

• Sara, secretly still entangled with Scott, fueling the betrayal beneath the surface.

• Vanessa, Sara’s wife and a gallery owner who unknowingly supports Scott and Sara.

As Alev falls harder, Scott's manipulations escalate. She ignores red flags: inconsistencies, controlling behavior, shady financial dealings. Her drug use increases. She begins doubting herself and those who question Scott. Shay grows suspicious, but Alev rejects his concern. Scott isolates her further.

In a climax set in a sex club, Alev experiences a terrifying emotional unraveling—both erotic and traumatic. Tied up, watching Scott and Sara interact with Vanessa, she sees clearly: the betrayal, the lies, the pattern. She escapes the scene shaken and furious.

Through a series of revelations, Alev and her friends expose Scott as a scammer. He's not rich. His startup is a facade. The investors (Burak among them) are victims. The woman he claimed was his mother is alive and well, contradicting his sob stories.

The unraveling culminates in a federal complaint. With help from Levent, Vanessa, and Brian (a private investigator who'd been trailing Scott), the group corners Scott at a train station. Alev has secretly swapped Scott's USB wallet while he showered. As the police arrive, we finally see her regaining agency.

The ending is emotionally grounded, not sensational: Alev, now sober and alone, sits by a window and begins to write her story.

STRUCTURE

• Act I: Arrival in SF; Alev's emotional chaos; Shay’s disapproval; first party; meeting Sara and Scott; honeymoon phase.

• Act II: Falling in love and into the scam; psychological control begins; tension with Shay; Vanessa's art show; Sara and Scott's secret alliance hinted.

• Act III: Sex club rupture; emotional and narrative climax; unraveling of Scott’s lies; betrayal becomes clear; USB theft and federal takedown.

• Denouement: Emotional fallout; forgiveness; Alev returns to herself through writing.

VISUAL MOTIFS & STYLE

• Blacklight & Neon: Represents the allure and illusion of this new life.

• Turkish coffee / tea / domestic rituals: Contrast, grounding, nostalgia.

• Reflections: Mirrors, puddles, screens—the double life and fractured identity.

• Dream logic transitions: Evoke memory fragments, confusion, and altered states.

EMOTIONAL ARC

• From fractured to focused.

• From self-abandonment to self-authorship.

• From exploited muse to empowered narrator.

THEME & MESSAGE
"Rave Queen" is about reclaiming your narrative after being consumed by someone else's. It speaks to immigrant loneliness, the danger of charismatic tech bros, and the thin line between seduction and manipulation. It is also a story of artistic rebirth, where writing becomes an act of resistance, survival, and healing.

Ilgaz Kuren delivers a cinematic love letter to San Francisco and a raw cry for every woman who's ever fallen for a man who promised the world, only to steal her light.