Martin Sheen in Malta 'Taking a Break From Everything'

As Charlie Sheen criticized his father and brother on the "Today" show, actor Martin Sheen was in Malta for the premiere of his new film to benefit a tiny Maltese organization for asylum seekers.

The movie, "The Way," stars the elder Sheen as a father who decides to walk the same ancient spiritual trail in Spain where his son died in order to understand his son better.

The U.S. ambassador to Malta, Douglas Kmiec, who just last week mobilized rescue boats to evacuate Americans and other foreign nationals from Tripoli, Libya, to Malta, is a friend of Martin Sheen and organized the benefit premiere, U.S. Embassy spokesman Elijah Waterman told AOL News today.

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So while his troubled son conducted a messy media blitz on the U.S. airwaves and hit back at his father for "treating me like a 12-year-old," the elder Sheen toured the small facility known as the Peace Lab in Malta and later almost brought its director to tears.

The Rev. Dionysius Mintoff runs the Peace Lab in Hal Far, which provides shelter to asylum seekers and has never asked for funding since it was established in 1971, The Times of Malta reported.

"Words fail me to express my gratitude," Mintoff told Sheen and Kmiec at the premiere of Sheen's movie Monday night, according to the newspaper. "May God shower you with his choicest blessings."

Sheen's movie was directed and written by another of his sons, Emilio Estevez. The movie was inspired by Estevez's own son, Taylor, who attended the Monday night screening with his grandfather.

Kmiec introduced Sheen at the screening as a "fellow parishioner, a neighbor from California and a distinguished actor." Sheen then addressed the audience to explain the film.

"It is a father and son journey across the Camino del Santiago de Compostella in Spain, but it is equally a voyage of the interior. It is an effort to unite the will of the spirit to the work of the flesh," Sheen said, adding, "Buen camino [have a good walk]."

Sheen expressly told people in Malta that he did not want to talk about his son Charlie.

"He is taking a break from everything in the U.S.," said a source in Malta who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We've been told he does not want to answer any questions about Charlie right now."

Charlie Sheen has been on a tour of talk shows and online gossip websites since Saturday, defending his past as a drug-fueled, porn star-filled "rock star" and hitting back at CBS executives as well as his family.