diff --git a/dev-python/plyvel/plyvel-1.5.0.ebuild b/dev-python/plyvel/plyvel-1.5.0.ebuild
index 83d70a71aba79..3873ef2b73e8a 100644
--- a/dev-python/plyvel/plyvel-1.5.0.ebuild
+++ b/dev-python/plyvel/plyvel-1.5.0.ebuild
@@ -27,10 +27,17 @@ DEPEND="
 RDEPEND="
 	${DEPEND}
 "
+BDEPEND="
+	dev-python/cython[${PYTHON_USEDEP}]
+"
 
 distutils_enable_sphinx doc
 distutils_enable_tests pytest
 
+src_configure() {
+	emake cython
+}
+
 python_test() {
 	rm -rf plyvel || die
 	epytest