diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/docutils/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/docutils/default.nix
index 545366373149..161e5361c1c1 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/docutils/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/docutils/default.nix
@@ -1,24 +1,36 @@
 { stdenv
 , lib
-, fetchPypi
+, fetchgit
 , buildPythonPackage
+, flit-core
+, pillow
 , python
 , pythonOlder
 }:
 
-buildPythonPackage rec {
+let self = buildPythonPackage rec {
   pname = "docutils";
   version = "0.21.1";
+  pyproject = true;
 
   disabled = pythonOlder "3.7";
 
-  format = "setuptools";
-
-  src = fetchPypi {
-    inherit pname version;
-    hash = "sha256-ZSSdilNFvJXg9A8oC6Y8mOsk3jXGyPW2YuPolIreqD8=";
+  src = fetchgit {
+    url = "git://repo.or.cz/docutils.git";
+    rev = "docutils-${version}";
+    hash = "sha256-ahnj6iKjyUCDxhgxJdwEb8huFIGpbuuLQBHDzKj6O9E=";
   };
 
+  build-system = [ flit-core ];
+
+  # infinite recursion via sphinx and pillow
+  doCheck = false;
+  passthru.tests.pytest = self.overridePythonAttrs { doCheck = true; };
+
+  nativeCheckInputs = [
+    pillow
+  ];
+
   # Only Darwin needs LANG, but we could set it in general.
   # It's done here conditionally to prevent mass-rebuilds.
   checkPhase = lib.optionalString stdenv.isDarwin ''LANG="en_US.UTF-8" LC_ALL="en_US.UTF-8" '' + ''
@@ -38,4 +50,5 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     license = with licenses; [ publicDomain bsd2 psfl gpl3Plus ];
     maintainers = with maintainers; [ AndersonTorres ];
   };
-}
+};
+in self