diff --git a/cheetah/Version.py b/cheetah/Version.py
index f01d1cd0..94f007f1 100644
--- a/cheetah/Version.py
+++ b/cheetah/Version.py
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Version = '2.4.4'
-VersionTuple = (2, 4, 4, 'development', 0)
+VersionTuple = (2, 4, 4, 'development', 1)
 
 MinCompatibleVersion = '2.0rc6'
 MinCompatibleVersionTuple = (2, 0, 0, 'candidate', 6)
diff --git a/cheetah/convertTmplPathToModuleName.py b/cheetah/convertTmplPathToModuleName.py
index 264f18e4..7c8a3ce6 100644
--- a/cheetah/convertTmplPathToModuleName.py
+++ b/cheetah/convertTmplPathToModuleName.py
@@ -17,4 +17,8 @@ def convertTmplPathToModuleName(tmplPath,
                                 _pathNameTransChars=_pathNameTransChars,
                                 splitdrive=os.path.splitdrive,
                                 ):
-    return splitdrive(tmplPath)[1].translate(_pathNameTransChars)
+    try:
+        moduleName = splitdrive(tmplPath)[1].translate(_pathNameTransChars)
+    except (UnicodeError, TypeError):
+        moduleName = unicode(splitdrive(tmplPath)[1]).translate(unicode(_pathNameTransChars))
+    return moduleName
\ No newline at end of file