I just ran into a similar problem, how to relatively import without binding the submodule.
Let's say you have this :
myapp/
urls.py
views/
base.py
When you're in urls.py and you want to relatively access Functions from base.py, you must use the from syntax.
from .views import base
base.func()
But what if I just want "views" in my namespace?
from . import views
from .views import base
views.base.func()
base.func()
import myapp.views.base
myapp.views.base.func()
from . import views
import myapp.views.base
views.base.func()
myapp.views.base.func()