diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 5e48064..a66f187 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ REVISION_NUM = 'unknown'
 CURSES_REVNO = 'uimod'
 
 # change to the directory setup.py is contained in
-os.chdir(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+os.chdir(os.path.abspath(os.path.split(__file__)[0]))
 
 try:
     if os.path.exists('.bzr') and os.system('bzr') == 0: